NCA to shut down defaulting stations

Ghana’s National Communications Authority (NCA) will be moving in to close down defaulting radio stations following the expiration of the general amnesty granted defaulting FM stations on 19 December 2017 to regularise their authorisation conditions. NCA said earlier that all defaulting commercial FM Stations (Revoked and Fined) in line with the general amnesty granted, were to rectify all outstanding issues by 15 January and pay a pecuniary penalty based on the number of days of violation but not over one year in any case. 

While some radio stations took advantage of the general amnesty and have met their outstanding regulatory requirements including the payment of outstanding fees and or penalties, others failed to take advantage of this, resulting in the decision to shut them down. Substantial benefits from the audit and its aftermath including increase in regulatory compliance, voluntary renewal applications, payment of outstanding regulatory fees, impact on other regulated services, clean-up of records and reinforcement of NCA’s regulatory role were some of the reasons given for the general amnesty.