[2016]DLCA4766 • June 8, 2016 • Court of Appeal
NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS AUTHORITY vs. TRANS-AFRICA TELECOM LTD.
The National Communications Authority (NCA) invited bids for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) licenses in the 2500 MHz – 2690 MHz band, requiring a nonrefundable application fee of US$50,000. Trans-Africa Telecom Ltd. (Respondent) submitted a bid and paid the fee. After initial stages, the Respondent was invited to a pre-auction meeting which was postponed. Subsequently, the Respondent was excluded from the shortlist published in a newspaper without formal notification. The Respondent claimed lack of transparency and sought refund of the application fee after being excluded without proper communication or opportunity to present their business plan at a public forum as required by the selection procedure.
read moreWELBOURNE (MRS), J.A. This is an appeal against the judgment of the High Court dated 3rd July 2013. The Background “According to a recent World Bank economic analysis of 120 countries, for every 10 percentage point increase in the penetration of broadband services, there is an increase in economic growth of 1.3 percentage points. This growth effect of broadband is significant and stronger in developing countries than in developed economies, and it is higher than that of telephony and internet.” (Culled from Information and Communication for Development (IC4D), 2009, World Bank Group). With this report in mind, as per page 282 of the Record of Appeal it is said that “It is the Government’s objective that every citizen and resident of the Republic of Ghana shall have access to high quality and affordable Broadband services to facilitate the accelerated transformation of Ghana into a knowledge-based society and technology driven economy”. Further, the Ghana Investment...