Ghana’s comms regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA), will take responsibility for running the country’s central revenue assurance platform after the new government discovered 84% of the revenue generated from inbound international traffic was being paid to Global Voice Group (GVG). The previous government signed a controversial long-term contract in December 2017 that promised USD1,491,225 per month to GVG for operating the national RA system. They later claimed the RA system had saved the country GHC1.5bn (USD260mn) by stopping tax evasion despite no evidence ever being shown in court to demonstrate any wrongdoing by Ghana’s telcos. Sam George MP, who was appointed Minister of Communications earlier this year, expressed his displeasure over the money wasted on the GVG deal during a press briefing held last week. GhanaWeb reported him saying:
The state is paying far more to monitor the revenue than it retains
USD18mn is already a grossly excessive price to pay any IT business for managing such a simple system, before anyone questions the wisdom of engaging a business that was run from offshore tax havens and founded by the corrupt former Prime Minister of Haiti. To agree to such a large amount was madness in the context of rapidly falling voice termination revenues as Africans switched to using OTT apps because of the high prices charged for international calls. However, Ghana’s previous government continued to shovel money to GVG even after they decided they would scrap the minimum termination fee for inbound international calls, effectively guaranteeing a big fall in the revenues the government collects from its stealth tax on those fees. The unhealthy nature of the relationship between GVG and the former government was made apparent when Ghana’s High Court ordered both of them to delete personal data they illegally obtained from phone users.
George has previously asked the Attorney General to review the contract with GVG for signs of corruption. This was no surprise as George had repeatedly criticized the deal with GVG whilst his party was in opposition. George also spoke at his press briefing of irregularities surrounding other contracts signed with IT businesses. He ended the briefing with a promise to “clean up” the communications ministry and its associated agencies.
The change in Ghana’s government is a blow to GVG and comes alongside their defeat in a long-running legal battle with the government of Guinea, after the West African country refused to pay USD22mn following the termination of a contract that GVG negotiated during the short-lived dictatorship of Dadis Camara, who has since been imprisoned for human rights violations including systematic murder and rape. Nevertheless, GVG continues to win lucrative new contracts with African governments by diversifying away from stealth taxes on voice calls to new kinds of stealth taxes on e-payments, mobile money and online gambling.
It is good that some African governments are now working harder to root out stealth taxes that feed corruption, increase the cost of digital services, but deliver no benefit to the general public. However, they receive no support from Western-led international institutions who have shown themselves to be indifferent to the endemic corruption within the communications sector. It is a sign of the incompetence of bodies like the International Telecommunication Union that a business like GVG was still given a marketing platform with the dubious claim that they ‘use AI for good’.
