Mid Week Madness:I am Number 19...on Google Plus -- a "Top Google+ User"

There I was minding my own business checking up data on Google Analytics, by way of email, when I serendipitously stumble upon some data on Google Plus, innocuously-called "GPLUS DATA". Then I found myself checking out the link here: http://www.gplusdata.com/search/country-Ghana/language-English/, which would outline the list of "Top Google+ users speaking English from Ghana ". 

Some of my BloggingGhana colleagues, including Ato Ulzen-Appiah are number four today (they were mysteriously number 5 yesterday).

Interestingly, there is an American lady from the US depriving me of my number 19 spot. She probably accidentally listed her country as Ghana. Though quite why any established-writer in the US would do that is beyond me!

So, well, I am number 20. For now. 

For now!

Watch this space...

Mid-Week Madness:Why I won't vote in Ghana's Elections

Most Ghanaians woke up to a tremendous downpour this morning, leaving many stranded at home for later than usual.

As I made my way to work, I saw a familiar queue--that of Ghanaians waiting to register for the ongoing biometric registration near my area.

I sucked my teeth in disgust.

Forget the fact that it's an important step in our democratic dispensation. I like to think that I take heart in not voting (as I won't have my voter's ID), because I am deadset against getting a voters ID when I have yet to receive my national ID card--promised to be distributed me back in August/September 2011. Why must I vote when I don't have my National ID card yet? Why was money not sought to ensure nation-wide distribution of cards had taken place? And why did our esteemed agencies not ensure that national ID cards would be the de facto form of registration?

Simply put: I won't get a voter's ID card when I don't yet have my national ID card. My national ID card will live LONG after elections are over!




          Check me out: http://www.ekbensah.net

Mid-Week Madness:Making ECOBANK Work for the People!

As Africa Trade Ministers meet in Accra between for the 7th Ordinary Session from 29th Dec-3rd Dec, 2011, one of the recommendations they have made in their "ACTION PLAN FOR BOOSTING INTRA‐AFRICAN TRADE" is for banks like ECOBANK to do better in supporting intra-African trade. In paragraph 25, they write: "Given the greater perceived risks of intra‐ African trade, the credit squeeze has tended to be more for such trade. This calls for more efforts in the development and strengthening of African financial institutions and mechanisms that accord high priority to the promotion of intra‐African trade and investment. There are currently some examples of African institutions whose activities need to be strengthened and replicated for the boosting of intra‐African trade. They include the COMESA PTA Bank, ECOBANK, the East African Development Bank, the African Export and Import Bank (AFREXIM), and the African Trade Insurance Agency(ATI)"

We know as ECOBANK users that ECOBANK has far from lived up ideally to the name of the "Pan-African Bank" when it comes to the way it deals with its customers. Frequent ATM problems across the continent, including a lack of appreciation of the genesis of ECOBANK, means that we currently have an ECOBANK that is not delivering adequately to the little man in Africa.

ECOBANK remains the only bank on the continent that is backed explicitly by a regional economic community (ECOWAS). It therefore behooves it to go beyond the profit-motive and deliver more responsibly and efficiently to its customers all over Africa, with a special focus on facilitating banking for the African customer. If it is true that ECOWAS has a vision that by 2020, it should ensure a safe and sustainable West Africa, then it behooves it equally to monitor ECOBANK to deliver more adequately to its customers than it currently does.

This group seeks not just to complain about the ECOBANK group, but to facilitate a discussion about how we as citizens can bring pressure to bear on ECOBANK to live up to its claim of being a Pan-African bank by being more transparent and efficient in the way it delivers to customers.

Kindly join me as we collectively put pressure to create a people-centred ECOBANK working for intra-African trade and the dream of an Africa where financial transactions are easily made. Thank you!

Join the group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ecobankgroupWatch/

Mid Week Madness: Where are Those ID Cards We were promised in July?

This is really getting out of hand.

Some of us saw the beginning of July not just as a hopeful period for the country, whereby our beleaguered cards would finally find themselves in our hands, but also a period when we could have faith that our institutions could deliver on "promises".

Almost two months later, I need to be eating my words. I cannot for the life of me understand why there are so many problems with the National ID Authority. The inset picture is a screen capture of their website. I am not quite sure what the "50% complete" is a reference to. If it's with regard  to  the distribution of the cards, that must be a joke. If not, why that figure?

All in all, there seems to be immense confusion around the cards and their distribution thereof. Most parts of Accra were supposed to have received it by now -- they have not.

To read a story (http://gbcghana.com/index.php?id=1.358607.1.529718), which blames "anomalies" of "beneficiaries" for the non-appearance may be true, but hardly encouraging.

The NIA should honestly come clean on when people should receive their ID cards. Please tell us something!

Shame on You, Skyy Plus! You're not "Making it Happen!" Work Harder, or Lose Customers!

I am just off the phone speaking to a customer service representative at the call center of SMART TV/SKYY PLUS. I am a very frustrated man.

A week or two ago, I received a text message from SKYY PLUS stating that from 1 August(yesterday), they would start charging 16GHC(US$10.6) a month for their service. I was confused and quizzed, so decided to look at the number, which looked very much like 0302.740.630 -- the number to contact the erstwhile SMART TV, which we bought and subscribed to in August 2010.

Now, I say "erstwhile", because neither SMART TV nor SKYY Digital had the decency to inform customers via text messages that they had merged. As to when exactly the merger happened is unclear. Googling the net, one finds an article on modernghana.com that states:

"As part of efforts to satisfy the demand of its customers, Skyy Media Group, operators of Skyy Digital, has introduced a new pay TV bouquet called Skyy Plus.

Born out of a collaboration between Skyy Media Group and Next Generation Broadcasting (NGB), the new bouquet is aimed at making available to millions of Ghanaians high quality television programmes and channels at an affordable price.

Speaking at a ceremony to outdoor Skyy Plus, Wilson Arthur, the Chief Executive of Skyy Media Group, noted that his outfit saw this commercial arrangement with NGB as very strategic as they were putting together their expertise and television content to ensure that the viewing experience of many homes in Ghana were enriched." (from: http://www.modernghana.com/music/15160/3/skyy-digital-introduces-skyy-plus-in-accra.html).

Let me just say that I hope I am not beginning to regret this merger, which was never announced to customers. SKYY PLUS, it seems, was more concerned about the bottom line than customer service -- and is very much exemplified by the attitude of Sedem, based at the Airport-residential HQ of SMART TV, who claimed he was too "busy" to respond to my queries about some of the questions I have over SMART TV.

Now, the biggest problem for me is this, and this was revealed by the main customer service representative at HQ: SKYY PLUS antennas are not as STRONG as those of SMART TV. My query, then, is if that is so, why on Earth did they decide to merge? Why merge with an inferior competitor? The situation now is that we have channels we are receiving from SKYY PLUS(Skyy world/Skyy one, etc) alongside channels from SMART TV, which is the baby of NEXT GENERATION BROADCASTING.

As to whether SMART TV is alive and well, no-one even knows. Though it is SMART TV customer care I called, I instinctively addressed my issue as a SKYY PLUS problem -- and rightly so. This, despite the fact that I was told last week that SMART TV is "still there".

In short, it is a whole mess, and I am not quite sure whether it is a good idea that I am still subscribing, or I should just abandon the bouquet they are offering.

I want to see the following things:

1. a clarification over the SKYY PLUS/SMART TV merger and its consequences for customers
2. a clarification over the double antennas
3. an apology BY TEXT and/or radio/print to SKYY PLUS customers as to why this is happening.

Anything other than this is unacceptable, and I would therefore implore Ghanaians far and wide--through my twitter/Facebook/and Google Plus status--that they better abandon SKYY PLUS if they don't want trouble, or better still, customers better forget about paying the 16GHC a month till SKYY PLUS/SMART TV get their act together!

ekbensah@ekbensah.net
0268.687.653

Mid-Week Madness:Of Irresponsible Journalists like Joseph Appiah-Dolphyne, and ECOWAS

It is a recondite fact that a lot of our Ghanaian media practitioners need capacity-building to be more discerning, but this has got to take the biscuit.

As I was winding down things to leave the office, I come across an article on Google News, which claims "ECOWAS ‘recognizes’ Gbagbo as president".

Now, if you have been following the story for the past three months, you would find this totally at synch against the ECOWAS option of wanting to use "legitimate force" to oust Gbagbo.

The journalist uses a PDF article on the ECOWAS website (http://www.ecowas.int) to claim that ECOWAS supports Gbagbo. This is totally mischievous. The PDF article is dated 6 June, 2010 -- many months before the whole crisis exploded.

The link he refers to can be downloaded here: http://www.ecowas.int/publications/en/ecowas_unit/Ecowas-National-Unit-Directory.pdf

An old article about a then-legitimate leader many months ago is in no way an endorsement by ECOWAS of Gbagbo as the President of Cote d'Ivoire.

Joseph Appiah-Dolphyne must come again!!

I've Been Running Around Trying to Find Certainty

" Johnny's always running around
Trying to find certainty
He needs all the world to confirm
That he ain't lonely " --Robert Palmer

It's one of those day when you don't get much done--despite the fact that you're at the cusp of a maelstrom of impending activity.


Started the day needing to attend a meeting in town. Came back all jaded and soporific at lunchtime.


Regrettably it's extended after lunch, with mischief by a mystery illness, initiated by an incipient sore throat, that wants to put me down.


I won't let it. I guess early home, coupled with doses of nostalgic music (90s, 2000s) will get me perky for Thursday morning.

Here's up for a looooooooooooooooong walk with my pet dog, Fenix.

So much to do, yet running around trying to find certainty. 

Mid-Week Madness:When your "Financial Institution is Unavailable", or A Cautionary Tale on Withdrawals

Last night, I almost lost my appetite because of a visit to the Accra mall I had entertained earlier. This was less of a case of a "mauvais quart d'heure"; it was more of a mauvais TWO hours!

I had gone to an ATM to withdraw a substantial amount of money, only to have a message flash across "your financial institution is unavailable". Rather used to this message, I dismissed it and went to another ATM.

To my horror, I had the barest minimum in my account--in other words ZERO money!

Within nano-seconds, I was on the mobile to my branch, who were simply just wasting my time trying to find someone I could make my complaint to.

To cut a long story short, after I had calmed down, I drew from an earlier experience and decided to call ECOBANK's toll-free 24/7 hotline. The lady was so, so sympathetic and calm about the whole thing. She took my details and apologised profusely, promising she would call me as soon as anything came up.

What had happened was that the bank had debited my account, when it displayed that message. This is not something I have not seen before; I should have been better-prepared. I had been withdrawing from this VISA-compatible ATM so many times I assumed everything would be A_ok.

In any event, I called the hotline some two hours later. A guy reassured me this time, explaining why such messages happen. He had good news! The machine had reversed automatically, and my money was back!

Note to self:

if you have to use the ATM, always withdraw a manageable minimum if you can, just in case this happens to you

keep sufficient, manageable money on you!

have your mobile handy 24/7 to call your branch in the event something like this happens

if you don't happen to have a 24-7 hotline for your branch, BLOG about it! Pester them! Write to the papers! The banks make enough money on us every nano-second. Why should they deprive you of such a service??

I have to say, though: Thankyou, ECOBANK!

I didn't think I would have to thank them so soon after being pissed off by some of the funny antics of some of their staff!

Mid-Wk Madness: Am Still Waiting for My Streetlights!

Now, that the Public Utility Regulatory Authority announced 31 May that electricity has gone up by 89%, might we not finally sit up to protest for our streetlights?

A careful scrutiny of our electricity bill reveals that each and every blessed consumer pays an amount towards fire-fighting and street-lighting.

Bottom line: where are our streetlights?

This post is inspired by ACCRADAILYPHOTO.com's one here: http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2010/06/thanks-to-89-electricity-increase-i-can.html

Mid-Week Madness: Re-dux: This is What Young Ghanaian Journalists Should Aspire To; The Inconsistency of Spintex Road Police

Back in 2007, I wrote a blog post, praising Business&Financial Times Journalist Moses Dzawu (now a Deputy News Editor!) who picked up my story of a piece of news I had heard on the radio about Stanbic Bank wanting to take over Ghana's only Agricultural Development Bank. I had spoken with him on Sunday night. By Monday, the front-page of BFT was asking whether ADB was being sold to Stanbic!!

Three years later, I feel compelled to revisit the title, because I think CITI-fm Journalist Bernard Avle (back from studying an MBA at Warwick university in 2008/2009) a couple of months ago and back on the "CITI Breakfast Show" for Mondays-Wednesdays) deserves the accolade for picking up a piece, written by former Deputy High Commissioner in Ghana Craig Murray on his blog a few weeks ago.

The story was on corruption, and how the British government is being hypocritical by not touching on how British companies have been complicit in corrupting Ghanaian officials over a number of deals. I circulated the story last Friday afternoon. On Monday, I saw it in front of "The Insight" newspaper.

After Avle's interview of Craig Murray himself, and a hosting of a panel that included Ghana Integrity Initiative (local chapter of Transparency International)Vitus Azeem, the story has taken somewhat epic proportions. The actual story is here: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/02/the_uk_and_corr.html#comments. I must, in fact, thank my British blogger-friend (since 2005) Daniel Hoffman-Gill, which website I found the link on last week! Thanks Daniel!

Meanwhile, I am getting frustrated in using the Spintex Road as the Ghana Police (motor Transport Unit) continue to show the same inconsistency I complained of in the last post. They simply are not deploying--either on time, or at all--police to stop all sorts of cars creating confusion on the road. When they're there, the traffic assumes a sanity that is refreshing. Refreshing because it is so rare for the road to be sane!

I wasted units calling the National Road Safety Commission hotline on MTN 18001 today. It didn't go through, so I was compelled to call their landline--only to be told that there was an electrical fault.

With a hotline?

Only in Ghana!

Truth be told, yesterday, when I did call, they picked it up and called me back to say that they have informed the Motor Transport Unit of the Ghana Police and they have been dispatched. Need they be told? I wondered. They didn't have an answer for me. This morning, I got the lie that the MTTU had been deployed. We had been on the road since 7.45am and it was as choked as ever, developing multiple lanes thanks to commuters using shortcuts that fed into the road.

I fear what tomorrow will bring, but I ain't giving up calling them, or radio stations to get the message across that Ghana Police are not helping us...

Mid-Week Madness: Blogging Paradox ; Afrigator Re-Dux and Guinea on My Mind

Few people know that I have another blog, entitled "Reflecting the Eccentric World of E.K.Bensah II"--save Ghanablogging colleague Kobby Graham who has listed it in his aggregator. That's the space where I blog about relationships, life and other esoteric stuff, which I feel I cannot shed light on on the ghana blog.

Whilst you're reading, let me give you a small quote from a post I wrote in June 2007 about reconciling real life with blogging--what I call the blogging paradox:

In so many ways, blogging has transformed us into both contradictory and paradoxical people. Contradictory because some of us chose to blog about heretofore private issues under both the ambit of free speech, as well as something to blog about, when that very same issue, we probably wouldn’t discuss with someone face-to-face...

When you read this blog, you do it and make judgments—or not—on the entries I write. At the time you read my entry, your attention is drawn only to the post, but not to my whole personality. In that respect, even if you consistently visit the blog and have a fair idea of who I am, by way of my blog entries, it’s difficult to be certain whether it’s all an act.

We have contemporaneously become paradoxical because the self-reflection of our private lives that we are so keen to refrain from divulging fully is refracted through our blogging, such that we blog about our personal lives, but only in a way that doesn’t reveal too much of what we intimately think and feel...

I believe with that quote I was trying to experience a catharsis that only writing can bring. This post, for example, was going to be about "what to do when you cannot blog", but when I started writing, I remembered there were other issues I needed to pick up, such as the dreaded afrigator.


The genesis of this post started with the fact that I was going to write about Ghanaian banks; however it was scuppered by my boss challenging me to do an analysis of the Guinea/Niger crisis refracted through the role of ECOWAS in Guinea.

This has meant that I have had to naturally suspend my blog entry to do some serious research before doing a good piece on the Guinea crisis. I've done a write-up for the blog; all that remains for me to do is to transfer it into blogging stuff.
In between that, other private matters have crept up--including where on Earth Ato Kwamena Dadzie is on the afrigator blog list? Somehow, there seems to be a bit more sanity. I wouldn't know if it had anything to do with the post I wrote last two weeks. All I can tell for now is that the cutting-and-pasting blogs have been relegated down there somewhere in the 80s. I am still a bit concerned that some non-Ghanaian-content blogs, such as Nubian Cheetah, who blogs more about Africa than Ghana is in the top 5.

I am sincerely happy to see that David Ajao's blog is in the top 5; he's a veteran and deserves the spot. The delectable Esi Cleland and Abena of Procrastinator Fame; including yours truly are in the top 10. What is Koranteng's Toli still doing in the top 5?!

The Day Ghanaian Customer Service Died...& Other Mindless Madness

Few issues make me viscerally turn my head out of disbelief than outright greed. So when I heard that the EXOPA CEO had been caught with cocaine, I couldn't quite make it out. Yeah, so we all love money, but most of us also bear in mind also that the love of if is the root of all evil. Frankly, I feel like history's repeating itself here. This is what I wrote in July 2007:

The week opened with drugs on my mind: a popular musician, Daassebre, who had been caught with two kilograms of cocaine in the UK. It prompted a radio discussion on Tuesday as to why so many Ghanaians want to defy the risk of carrying narcotics into European soil. I called in and made a contribution, which I can summarise thus:



There are two levels we have to be looking at this. There is, first, the local level.

At the local level, we should have a billboard at Kotoka International Airport (KIA) that states explicitly that Ghana is a no-drugs country. That always helps, plus the one thrown in for good measure that Ghana is a strong partner in the fight against drug-trafficking. We should also be building the capacity of officials at GCAA (Ghana Civil Aviation Authority) to be able to have a good idea (discerning eye) for those who might want to take drugs out of the country, or bring it in. If this means going on courses overseas, then fine!

At the sub-regional level, I maintain that there should be an ECOWAS Convention on Combatting Drugs in the same manner there is one on small arms to the degree that the Kimberely Process on Blood Diamonds has eventuated from it. I also think that one should go back to the discussions back in 2002 when ECOWAS Police Leaders met (http://www.iss.co.za/Af/RegOrg/unity_to_union/ecowasprof.htm), and this was discussed[...]

from: http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/07/as-week-draws-to-close-in.html

My solution remains pretty much the same two years later: we do need both a local and sub-regional approach to tackle the drug question.

On another front, I want to quickly broach the issue of my Mid-Week Madness, which I have focussed on customer service--or the lack thereof--in Ghana.

I need to doff my hat off to Ghana Hall of Shame whom I think is doing a great job by trying to become the quintessential nemesis of all that is wrong about Ghanaian retail--and corporate--attitude to customers. I entreat you to visit the site and submit your stories.

Getting back to my complaints, let's start with my entry that featured on my accradailyphoto blog in September.

I don't know about you, but I think Corporate Ghana's got a lot of work to do to tidy up itself. Kids are being used in MTN ads and a worker at GAME (Accra Mall)recently told me when I queried two prices for one product that:

"ah, that's GAME for you!"

For me, that was the day customer service at GAME died.

You do your formulations and calculations on the kind of thoughts that went on in my mind when this customer told me this, but it must needs be said that GAME should revise the way it treats its customers. I believe Ghana Hall of Shame will gladly pick it up for us, but even before they do, those of you who patronize GAME might think about watching the price tags more carefully now.

Mid-Week Madness: At the Dawn of ECOWAS Day, am Livid about Coverage of AU Day by Ghanaian media

Tomorrow is the 34th anniversary of the the Economic Community of West African States, but I can bet my bottom-dollar that Ghanaian media will provide scant coverage of it.

Yesterday, I sent a message to the CITI97.3FM appreciation group on Facebook, which you can read below:

Hello! Yesterday I tuned in to citi around 13.02GMT to catch up with what I felt I had missed of Kat's brilliantly-presented African music programme, only to hear Farida K read the news, which she did brilliantly.

After that, I heard none other than popular presenter Jessica and Kat comparing notes on who could read the news better!!! On AU day!

I tuned after some ten minutes to Uniiq FM to hear a lengthy discussion/interview of an academic about AU day and what it meant for Africans. Then I tuned to Joy FM's news on the hour. Again, special coverage of AU day.

Surely something is wrong CITI-fm? Why can JOy and Uniiq cover AU day on the hour of their news and CITI not? I know Moro interviewed someone on the special breakfast show for some thirty minutes or so; that was commendable. The rest of the CITI bReakfast show was about SERIAL CALLERS!!! On AU day???? A segment would have been fine!

Two years ago, AU day was celebrated in grand style on CITI fm--from excerpts of Osagyefo Dr.Kwame Nkrumah to analysis of Bob Marley's lyrics.

This is what the UK media calls "dumbing down", in my humble opinion!

CITI fm, wake up!!!

Some hours later, the big boss of the station, Mr.Samuel Attah-Mensah, responded with a simple "thanks". I thought that was good of him; let's hope things can change for next year.

As the Week Opens in Accra: Reflections on Blogging about Life in Accra

I used to think that it was my international blog that got me stuck in what I call a blogging paradox, but it appears that almost almost four years of blogging about life in Accra, it seems I'm getting the block here as well.

In 2006, in order to ensure that the blogging came in free-flow, I started to categorise my posts. I came up with:

Darkness Falls...

, which chronicled living in testing times when the electricity went going off and on, and citizens were confined to what was called a load management. It seems so distant now that I had almost forgotten how serious a toll it had on one's finances.



Before that, though, I had come up with As the Week Draws to a Close...in Accra, where I rounded up the week's events. From 2006-2007, there was quite a bit to write about; but in 2008, as Accra became increasingly Westernised, it seems like there was less to write about. Am unsure whether it has anything, though, to do with it, as there remain myriad number of problems and challenges in the country.

Now that we learn that President Attah-Mills has inherited an economy that is broke, the task cannot be more daunting!

All that said, with new categories like Mid-Week Madness and Taxi Tales, it seems like theer is plenty to write about, but I am just not feeling like writing it!

Like the picture above, looked like insofar as my blogging here is concerned, I have reached the end of the road?

I have said elsewhere that I don't like New Year resolutions, so there will be none of that here--just to say that I really do not have any excuse!

The sky is my limit!

I'll see you here soon!

Mid-Week Madness: How One Celebrated Xmas and Ghana Election 2008

Let me begin by wishing you ALL a profoundly sincere and joyous New Year. May all your dreams come to pass! As you ponder what you would like to see yourself improve over 2009, allow me to bring you a different kind of Accradailyphoto post--that of television pictures. This is because given the intensity of the Ghanaian elections, it is safe to assume a lot of time was spent by Ghanaians in front of the television!

Before I begin, let me just add that Ghana has just recently added a sixth TV station by the name of Viasat 1, so you will forgive me if most of the screen shots were from one TV station--Metro TV. The family spent most of the time shuttling between TV3 and Metro TV, and I have to say that Metro outshone TV3 in terms of graphics, drama, currency. Good stuff.

The pictures below offer you a glimpse of how Ghanaian TV can be. Enjoy!

On 30 December, Ghanaians sat down to their televisions, with radios in tow for good measure, to listen to Dr.Afari-Gyan of Ghana's Electoral Commission was to declare who the winner out of the 28 December run-off would be.

Or was he?



Just to give you a clue: the inimitable Mary-Ann Acolatse, news editor of Metro TV, (pictured here) would facilitate extensive coverage of why Dr.Afari-Gyan was most likely not going to announce a winner. You will see from the screen capture that only 229 out of 230 constituencies had been announced; one would remain...


...and so, the Electoral Commission (EC) boss would give some kind of stay of execution by announcing on the tv networks that the constituency of Tain--a rural constituency in the Brong Ahafo region needed to vote on 2 January, 2009. It would be that vote that would definitively secure the winner of the December 2008 general elections that has been described by the Western media as a "cliff-hanger".


New Year would come...and go...









...and the winner of the Tain voting on 2 January would be declared through provisional results. The screen capture clearly shows that the party to the left of the screen (incumbent [until this afternoon at 13h00 GMT] -- National Patriotic Party (NPP)) received only 9.02% of the votes, with the now-ruling government [as of 14h00 GMT today!] of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) receiving 90.98% of the votes.

Mid-Week Madness:Why did NPP Government Have to Sell Ghana Telecom?

The 70% acquisition by Vodafone of state-owned Ghana Telecom may be a done-and-dusted deal, subject only now to parliamentary approval in the august house. There are, however, serious issues arising that merit some consideration.

First of all, one would have to be from Mars not to know that this is an election year. After the announcement was made in 2006 to privatise, why is it only now that the putative sale has gone through, some five months before general elections? Secondly, despite the fact that there was a breather after France Telecom and Portugal Telecom were rejected some months back, at what point did Vodafone up and decide to make the bid, which, if we believe the opposition, was a non-starter, on account of the fact that there were other bidders ready to pay more than the $960million?

In December 2007, Kenya, where Vodafone operates as a mobile operator under Vodafone Kenya, was in the concluding stages of privatising state-owned Telkom Kenya, with the winning bidders France Telecom taking control by 21 December, 2007. The uncanny similarity of an opaque bidding process coupled with a privatisation so close to general elections makes for an explosive coincidence that is so serious it’s not funny. One might be tempted to think that this has nothing to do with Vodafone, till we read that an offshore-registered company by the name of Mobitelea was offered an opportunity to acquire 25% of Vodaphone Kenya Limited at the same price Vodafone had acquired them. This prompted civil society groups in Kenya to argue that “the privatisation of Telkom Kenya cannot…be deemed regular until the true picture of its ceding of [mobile provider] Safaricom shares to Vodafone Kenya is unravelled and rectified.”

Here, there is little proof that anything irregular has gone on despite the manner in which the sale went through so quickly, but reading the *Financial Times* account of the sale was sufficient to prompt speculation that given that the country is experiencing a budget deficit, the government might have seen a sale so close to the election as an opportunity to make amends around the economy.

Practices elsewhere
Still, whilst Kenya can talk about Vodafone Kenya bidding for a part of Safaricom, Ghana cannot even talk about a Ghanaian consortium ready to buy GT. This is one of the unique things about this privatisation. The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia tells us that Vodafone has three networks in the Middle East and Africa that are majority-owned: Egypt, Qatar and now Ghana. In the first case, state-owned Telecom Egypt owns 45% of Vodafone Egypt. In the Qatari case, Vodafone went in as a mobile operator, securing a 45% stake in Qatar Telecom, the Middle Eastern country’s second mobile licence provider. When we come to Ghana, a significant 70% was not only at stake, but also of our state-owned provider, prompting one to wonder why such a high figure, and why the land-line provider? Reports in the Ghanaian media indicate that Globacom had also made a bid, but had to settle for second best through a mobile service.

Questions Unanswered
Those are not the only questions. Reports in the media suggest that the minority’s concern was that Vodafone comes in as a strategic investor with little experience in landline provision. That it is setting up new services in New Zealand, where Vodafone also operates, that look like landlines and mobile lines combined should not be sufficient to assuage our fears of how it will manage our broadband services, national fibre optic system, and others. What of our national security? There is anecdotal evidence of our state security – BNI -- monitoring landlines; how far will the security services go in allowing a mobile provider with plenty of capital to share the monitoring of our landlines? Thirdly, all mobile providers have had to pass through GT for their operations. Now that Vodafone’s acquisition is semi-complete, will Vodafone’s supreme interest be in the regulation of the other providers, or a rough-and-ready competitor alongside them? Will the lines be indefinitely blurred on all these issues?

My Mid-Week Madness: GBS Goes Gaga on Three; Driven to Distraction

Justbefore I disappeared for ten nights away from home for UNCTAD XII, I was anxious to see the new stations that GBS had promised.

After the three new channels -- G-Series; G-Africa; KidsCo -- "arrived", I next had a question for the ages: how on Earth did GBS procure Lipstick Jungle, which is an entirely new show on NBC in the States? How on Earth, when the show started airing only earlier this year?

It's clear that those are some of the insider secrets that only GBS staff would know--and would not be willing to divulge--no matter how hard I tried to interrogate them;-)

I have to say that G-Africa has been the bomb in the sense that it's exploded in our senses and--my God!--our minds and whatever else it can explode into. Sundays these days are to die for, 'cos there's only one station we tune to--and that's G-Africa. You've got your series and your Nollywood movies all vying for our attention--and plenty of attention they get from us!!! ([note to Editor: $100? for this plug? come on! you can do better than that!] I've had enough now--it's simply good! In all seriousness, it's hard to believe that you can even get a monthly subscription as low as GHC11.00!! (circa $US11.00)

Friends and acquaintances comparing DsTV to GBS have great basis of comparison in the sense that the former offers its proverbial so much more. Question is: how much MORE tv can I watch?? I struggle even with these 17 stations that GBS offers in that I cannot watch even half of them regularly. We generally watch SKY news to catch up news in the UK; G-Prime; and MGM.


Driven to Distraction
I'm being lazy in formulating new, funky terms to describe my going back to school to drive, so I'm stuck with the one above, which is also featuring on my Reflecting Eccentric World of E.k.Bensah II here.

Point is: I have started doing the theory on driving since the beginning of this week. I was a bit patchy on my memory of INFORMATORY; REGULATORY and warning signs, so I backed a bit this lunch-time. Will get back to you on how well I do, but I feel more confident today.

Keep yer fingers crossed, merci bien!

Cats and Dogs
How can I forget about the rain? I never said I was not yellow! Yesterday night proved how much so I was when I dodged into a corner to sleep (!) to prevent any lightning strikes come the way of my room!

I value my life too much, thankyou!

Mid-Week Madness: UN's Still Coming to Town!; Shoprite Disappoints -- and So Do Their Salesgirls!

It was always too good to be true: a high-power retailer like Shoprite coming to Accra, and not taking Ghanaians for a ride.

For the past few weeks, I have been through Shoprite to meet only a scene like this mostly at the margarine/butter side. A quick glimpse reveals a full house insofar as margarine/butter is concerned. Move down a few departments, like the biscuit section, and you find that the shelves have been empty for a while. I have only complained to one or two people who have assured me it would be full up.

No such luck.

I'll have to bring you picture of the empty stores I'm talking about some time--'cos there are quite a few! Who's monitoring these things?

I am sure they will not be losing sales by any stretch of the imagination, but they must be putting those who patronise the shop off quite a bit! Not that I mind that they lose or anything, but I do wonder about claims of quality, where the provision of it is next-to-none.

Whilst we are at it, is it a quintessential Ghanaian trait for sales-girls working in retail outlets like these to not smile at you, at worst, and greet you at best? How long does it take to say "good evening", or "good afternoon". I've ended up a couple of times asking: "so you won't greet?".

To which they will grimace, or feign a smile and say "sorry, you were distracted", or "sorry, but you didn't see it", or some such excuse.

Until Ghanaians begin to demand quality service from them--even if they are under-paid--we will be worse off. I sympathise sincerely about the bad pay, and probably bad conditions of service, but this takes the biscuit!

You would at least expect a greeting, not silence for your goods to be passed through like robots. Robots, we are not, thankyou!



UN Still Coming to Town
The UN Conference on Trade and Development is still coming to town! It aint going anywhere. There are a number of interesting conferences and interactive seminars that will be held during the time. It appears, though, that some of these will take place during the official UNCTAD conference, scheduled for 20-25 April.

The emphasis on "official" is important, because it means that if you are not formally accredited to the main conference--and frankly, it's too late now--you cannot attend. All is not lost, however, for there is the civil society forum, which I mentioned in the last post, which you can access here. That means that any one of you--be you journalist or non-governmental organisation, or citizen--can register here.

All that said, I shall be at the heart of things during the period, and be sure to be blogging as avidly as ever!

Today's edition of the NPP-sponsored Statesman newspaper has an editorial on UNCTAD XII, in which the title appears to be a thinly-veiled exhortation to be vigilant about globalisation.