Internet Outage This Is Another form of Dumsor Atik Mohammed

Atik Mohammed has expressed his worries over the internet outage that has affected Ghana and some parts of the world.

The internet went off days ago affecting almost all networks and internet-related businesses.

Mobile money transactions in Ghana are also adversely affected, causing major obstacles to MoMo users in the country.

The internet connectivity obstacles have been attributed to a faulty undersea cable but the authorities assure the problem will be fixed as soon as possible.

However, the National Communications Authority (NCA) has alerted Ghanaians that the problem will be rectified in about 5 weeks.

Contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show, Atik Mohammed likened the internet outage to dumsor, a term coined to describe the perennial power cuts to Ghanaians.

Dumsor became popular during the previous Mahama regime where electricity supply was often irregular.

Atik, explained that the internet, as it is now, behaves like how the Electricity organization of Ghana is treating the Ghanaian populace, stating "it keeps going on and off".

"This is another form of dumsor, just that this is not in respect of electricity but internet and it's very worrying," he said.

The former PNC General Secretary also noted that Ghana is losing lots of revenues due to this internet problem and dreads it may further have negative impact on economic activities in the country.

"Right now, our lives are all attached to the internet. There's nothing you can do without the internet. Communications, planning, business, everything is tied to the internet. So, when there is a disruption such as that which we are witnessing, it is worrying. So, it is a very, very big problem...Government's revenue is being affected. We who are doing transactions through that medium, people's businesses are suffering."

To Atik, this internet disruption should serve as a learning curve to the Government of Ghana, stressing "as a country that wants to progress recognizing that it is innovation that help us achieve this goal, we should have a national digitalization policy which, in it, should have provision for digitalization infrastructure...because the world is moving at a faster pace today".


Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/