It will be very much surprising to wake up to a fresh day and learn that an aviation company (eg. British Airways) has now veered into let’s say the fashion industry; unless it is a subsidiary of that company.
A telecommunication company provides telecommunications services such as telephony, data communications access, and internet service.
According to the statistics provided by the World Bank, telecommunications is the main economic sector of Ghana. As of 2013, there were 26,336,000 and 284,981 (2012) cell phone and telephone lines in operation respectively.
This means the workload on our telecommunication companies are heavy which requires lot of focus and concentration. Yet, it is quite perplexing how these companies are adding up different services to their primary service every day.
In the last few years, one major service that these companies have added to their already existing services is the banking service. It is common nowadays to hear about MTN Mobile Money, Airtel Money, Tigo Cash, and so on, providing banking services to their subscribers.
Another sector in which these telecommunication companies have penetrated into is the insurance industry. With the likes of Airtel Insurance and Tigo Family Care Insurance, one is expected to register in order to insure him/herself and his/her family from future disaster and misfortunes.
Living in a world where technology is making almost everything easy and fast to accomplish, these are very good initiatives administered by our telecommunication companies; but are they not doing too much even to the point of losing focus on what their primary functions are?
As the old adage goes; “When an eye is used to look into the holes of two bottles, the bottles finally break in the end.”
With a little survey I conducted regarding the services of our telecommunication companies for the purpose of this article, some of the things those I talked to expressed displeasure about the most are poor network quality that they experience, slow internet connection, exorbitant internet charges, and so on. I myself had problems connecting my internet yesterday (both mobile phone and modem).
It is not a new thing trying to call a friend on phone when a voice tells you “the number you are calling is either switched off or out of coverage area” when in fact that friend’s phone is switched on with available network coverage.
Have the network operators taken time to reflect on how to improve their main services as telecommunication companies for the benefit of their subscribers rather than think about adding other services that are supposed to be mainly performed by other sectors?
It wouldn’t be surprising anymore to hear that our network operators are now into fish farming, selling of clothes, supplying water to the homes of others, and so on, leaving behind their actual work.
In as much as they would like to make the lives of Ghanaians simple, they should not forget about their main duty. It is always said that “First things first.” If our telecommunication companies apply this simple rule, they would be able to provide better services for Ghanaians.
I wouldn’t be much bothered if these companies had their main services well managed—and then decide to look at piling up new ones.
Article was submitted by Kwame Hagan, a level 400 student at the Ghana Institute of Journalism.