NCA should be transparent in its activities – Outgoing GIBA President

The outgoing President of the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association, Andrew Danso-Aninkora, is concerned about the communique from the National Communications Authority (NCA) on 133 radio stations that have received approval to return to the airwaves.

He believes that NCA has not been transparent enough with its communication on the approval of the licenses of these 133 radio stations.

The GIBA president was particular about the information in the statement which disclosed that these radio stations will only be allowed to operate after they had completed a sensation workshop on the “terms and conditions of FM radio broadcasting authorisations.”

Speaking to Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he questioned: “Why will the NCA conduct a workshop for only 133 instead of all the radio stations in Ghana? True, these existing radio stations have not erred against the law today but it is possible they will err against the law tomorrow. So these stations can have a refresher on what they already know.”

Andrew Danso-Aninkora was also not happy that the NCA had not published the names of these 133 radio stations. According to him, an investigation by GIBA revealed that some of these radio stations who submitted their applications for authorisations have not received any letters to confirm the “provisional authorization” by NCA.

He thus concluded, “National Communication Authority should be transparent in their activities.”

Andrew added that GIBA is being critical of the work of the NCA because they [GIBA] want the best.

The National Communications Authority (NCA) has announced that a total of 133 FM radio broadcasting authorisations have been given approval.

The Authority noted that this includes new applications from entities whose FM radio stations were closed down after the 2017 FM Audit as well as existing stations that applied for renewal of their expired FM Radio broadcasting authorisations.