The CEO of the Ghana Telecoms Chamber, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, has said his outfit is not a cartel as has been speculated by a section of the media and the general public.

“The Chamber is not a cartel. That’s a no-go area. If it was, prices would not be going down but up, in the same direction as our costs”, said Mr. Sakyi-Addo at the Ghana Telecoms Summit in Accra.

He emphasised that the chamber does not determine pricing of telecoms products and services, rather it discusses issues that are of common interest to members of the chamber, which comprises of the six telecom operators in the country.

“We never discuss pricing. The only issues that concern the Chamber are those that are of common interest to telecom operators; policies, legislation and regulation. Pricing is left for each individual operator to determine as it sees the markets”, Mr. Sakyi-Addo emphasised.

“Anything else would not just be unethical but illegal both in Ghana and in the countries of their headquarters”, he added.

Until now, industry watchers had thought the chamber was playing a cartel in order to raise the profit margins of telecom operators as they grapple against increasing costs.