The Ashanti, Central and Greater Accra regions have recorded the most instances of telecommunication equipment thefts in the last five years, the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has said.
The Chamber indicated in a statement that between August 2020 and May 9, 2022, a total number of 115 theft cases of active devices were recorded, in addition to 1,429 incidents of passive equipment theft.
For active equipment theft, the Ashanti Region alone recorded over 50 theft cases ,out of the 114 (44 percent). The Central Region followed with a total of 19 theft cases representing 16.8 percent, followed closely by Greater Accra, which recorded 18 incidents representing 15.9 percent.
These active parts of the infrastructure stolen at the cell sites include the base transceiver system, transmission equipment, Radio Frequency cables, and electrical cables.
“The unfortunate acts occasionally cause intermittent network disruptions and customers experience network challenges in the surrounding areas of these affected eight regions including Ashanti, Bono, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra, North, Volta & Western,” the Chamber noted.
Passive equipment theft
For the passive equipment theft from 2017 to March 2022, Greater Accra leads with 461 theft incidents (32 percent) Ashanti Region follows with 375 incidents (26 percent) and Eastern Region follows with 270 incidents (19 percent).
“Over this period over 440,000 gallons of diesel, 804 B.T.S batteries, 786 generators batteries, 124 DC-AC Inverters, 102 AVR Transformers, 26 AC Units and 8 Fire Extinguishers are among the item stolen.”
In line with this, the chamber is “offering a very handsome reward” for information leading to arrest of persons involved in telecommunication equipment thefts.
“Additional amounts would be given to whistle-blowers when the culprit is prosecuted and jailed.”
Other items that are stolen include fuel, batteries, copper cables, conductors and other passive infrastructure for some time now.
The Chamber said it had been collaborating with the CID and the National Signal Bureau, an agency of the National Security, to curb the thefts.
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