About 100 telephony sites and 85 repeater sites that would benefit 500 communities under the project have been completed this year.

By the end of the year, it is expected that 200 additional telephony sites would be added to benefit some 1,000 more rural communities.

IT concentration

Speaking at the ceremony on Friday August 3, 2018, President Akufo-Addo observed that though information technology (IT) has over the years been an integral part of human lives, access and distribution of basic IT infrastructure such as the telephony service has been concentrated in the major economic centres to the deprivation of rural areas in the country.

“That is why government continues to attach great importance to ensure that telecommunication and Information Communication Technology (ICT) facilities which can now be described as basic necessities of life are available in all parts of the country” he said.

He added that government’s commitment to ICT was demonstrated in the creation of enabling environment by implementing policies over the past 19 months that encouraged private sector investment in the communications sector.

Partners

The telephony project is being carried out by the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) in partnership with MTN, a mobile telecommunication company and Huawei Technologies Limited which is an IT company.

With the objective of ensuring universal access in the country, the project when completed in 2020 would provide 100 per cent coverage of mobile telecommunication service to 1020 un-served communities across the country and also increase telephone subscribership to as many citizens as possible

Measures

Speaking at the event, the Minister of Communications, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful pointed out that, despite the positive immeasurable impact of ICT in Ghana, certain measures needed to be taken to promote digital inclusion and also mitigate the impact of digitalisation on traditional jobs.

“We can do so by optimising our human capital through education, training and skills development” she said.

The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Mr Selorm Adadevoh advised indigenes to protect the sites in order to derive optimum benefit from the facility.

“In the past we have had incidence of battery theft and destruction of solar panels. I believe that with our collective vigilance, this will be a thing of the past” he said

Telephony sites

The Administrator of GIFEC, Mr Abraham Kofi Asante noted that the construction of 100 telephony sites within a seven months period demonstrates transformational leadership and commitment of the government to provide telephony universal access to the people of Ghana.