Monitoring Platform: Telecoms Chamber says Kelni GVG deal will spy on Ghanaians

The Chief Executive of the Telecoms Chamber Ken Ashigbey said “the current architecture that the NCA and their service providers are proposing does not comply with the laws.”

The Chief Executive of the Telecoms Chamber Ken Ashigbey has accused the Communication Ministry of signing a deal with Kelni GVG which will allow them to spy on Ghanaians.

In an interview with Accra-based Starr FM, Ken Ashigbey said this does not conform to the laws of the country.

“The current architecture that the NCA and their service providers are proposing does not comply with the laws. The law also says that we must be sure that when we do that we don’t have access to the content so that there is no privacy breach…but unfortunately, the architecture has the capability [to spy]. So what the telcos are saying is that, as we speak our data stands to be breached if we go with the current architecture.”

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The Communications Ministry has signed a deal with the Kelni GVG to connect for real-time monitoring of calls.

In Parliament last week, the Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said telcos that do not cooperate with Kelni GVG will be sanctioned. She also revealed that two telcos are in the process of being connected.

“I am happy to announce that Vodafone and Glo are in the process of being connected as we speak. The others are expected to be connected by the 11th of June. Any operator who fails to comply will be sanctioned.”

However, think tank IMANI Africa which sounded the alarm on the deal has described it as fraudulent and called for immediate termination.

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Its president, Franklin Cudjoe, argued that the deal was similar to the controversial agreements the state entered into with Subah Infosolutions and Afriwave Telcom Ltd in 2010 and 2016 respectively.

He also raised the privacy concerns while questioning the credibility of Kelni GVG.

“Ghanaians will have their data threatened if they allow this GVG company to play with their phone calls, chats, everything…with very strange characters behind it since all it has, for a security company of its pedigree, are stock photos,” he told Citi FM in May.

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