Don’t give out subscribers’ MoMo details to government – Court to telcos

The High Court in Accra (General Jurisdiction) presided over by Justice Rebecca Sitties, has ordered Ghana Telecommunications Company Limited and Stratcom (MTN Ghana Limited) and all network service providers not to release subscribers’ Mobile Money details to the government.

The court order is coming out of a challenge mounted by a private legal practitioner, Mr Francis Kwarteng Arthur, to President Nana Akufo-Addo’s order contained in Executive Instrument (EI) Number 63 and the manner in which the order was being implemented.

Through EI 63, the government, through Kelni GVG, made a request to the telecommunication networks and service providers, to hand over the personal information of all customers and subscribers to the President to conduct contact-tracing to control the spread of COVID-19.

Mr Arthur, through his lawyer, Mr Justice Srem Sai, sued the Ghana Telecommunications Network (1st), Stratcom (MTN) (2nd), Kelni GVG (3rd), the National Communications Authority (4th) and the Attorney General (5th) respondents) for interference and invasion of privacy.

In a 115-page ruling delivered on July 24, the court ordered the National Communication Authority to supervise the clearing of already-released data from both electronic and manual systems from today, July 30, 2021.