The West African Regional Director of CUTS International, Appiah Kusi Adomako, is urging the government to pass a national competition law to tackle monopolies in key sectors, including pay-TV. This comes after MultiChoice, the operator of DSTV, refused to reduce its prices despite the Communications Minister, Samuel Nartey George, requesting a price cut. The Minister has directed the National Communications Authority (NCA) to suspend DSTV’s broadcasting license if the company fails to reduce its prices by August 7, 2025.
According to Adomako, the absence of competition has allowed companies like MultiChoice to operate without effective regulatory checks, to the disadvantage of consumers. “As a country, if we want to reduce such a dominant monopoly, I think that we need to come up with a competition law,” he said. “By competition law, I am sure we will be able to address most of these issues.”
Adomako lamented that Ghana has had a draft competition bill prepared for nearly two decades, but it is yet to be tabled before Parliament. “Of course, we have this draft bill hanging over the Ministry of Trade for the past 18 years, and it’s never gone to Parliament,” he said. “We hope that once Ghana is able to put it before Parliament, we can get some of these things destroyed.”
MultiChoice claimed in a nine-page response that despite the cedi’s recent gains, its 240% depreciation over the past eight years makes a price cut impossible. However, Adomako believes that a competition law would help address such issues and promote fair competition in the industry.
