Ghana Telecom (GT) used to carry out the supply and installation of such equipment exclusively, among other things. This has now been deregulated to individuals or small private companies.

It is disturbing to note that despite all the talk of Ghana working to become the ICT hub of West Africa and the need to create an information society, it is still extremely difficult to attempt bringing basic telecommunication terminal equipment to Ghana.

Recently at the arrival hall of the international airport in Accra, a very serious argument ensued between a Ghanaian from the Diaspora and customs officials (CEPS) because he had brought in 5 Panasonic telephone sets, a Panasonic fax machine and a Dell Computer.

The CEPS official insisted that on a letter from the National Communication Authority (NCA) before they would release his telephones and fax machine. So many questions came to mind: Hasn't the NCA got more serious work to do?

Are we going to continue to mystify basic ICT tools and turn around to say there is an enabling environment for ICT in Ghana? This person could have brought along reading lamps and decorative lights for his offices.

In a sense these are also terminal equipment - for electricity - and are they also subject to this ridiculous regime? A few days later at the Accra Central Business District (CBD), this writer enquired from a store that sells some of these equipment and got this response: "To import basic telephone sets into Ghana we first all have to ask permission from the NCA by letter and when the equipment arrive at the port we will need another letter to CEPS before the equipment can be released to us.

The NCA also arbitrarily slaps a levy of over $ 1,000.00 on us for what it terms a Radio License. We don't use the radio frequency spectrum, like say the mobile phone companies or security companies.

I have told my technicians to go home because I will rather sell rice and provisions to avoid such problems."

The current ICT policy document from the Ministry of Communications hinges so much on the service industry and how to get these services to the remote and poor sectors of the society.

With this posturing by the NCA trying to milk a pesewa out of every ICT product, then the dreams by the Ministry will be nothing but an illusion: ICT regulation involves so much and is still evolving.

For instance the third (3G) and fourth (4G) generation mobile systems are introducing new challenges (W-CDMA, TD-SCDMA) and how are we gearing up to face regulatory challenges posed by these technological developments?

What is the regulator doing to encourage the assembly - not the production - of these basic terminal equipment? Getting a telephone set into this country involves basic costs like the cost of the telephone, freight and insurance, duties and ECOWAS levies. Any further levies by the NCA will only increase the cost to the end user or put the companies out of business in an era of the Golden Age of Business.