Zain Telecommunication Limited, a mobile telecommunication giant in partnership with Ericsson and the Earth Institute, has extended its operations to the Millennium Village of Dertu in Kenya.
"The service will help subscribers to identify safe sources of water, mobilize emergency transportation, find employment and get accurate information on the prices of goods and services before taking their livestock and other produce to market," a statement issued in Accra on Thursday said.
Dertu Millennium Village is located in North-eastern Kenya, a mainly rural and nomadic area, approximately 140 km from the Kenya-Somali border.
According to the statement, the company had installed a temporary network with a 20-meter diesel-run tower that covered up to 20 km and brought mobile communications, to Dertu's estimated 5,200 people.
It said the initiative first outlined in September 2007 at Columbia University in New York City, had a positive impact on health and education, social wellbeing and livelihoods.
The statement said the people could now access health and education services through their mobile phones.
It said "The project enabled villagers to become closer to their social network. By putting the community in touch with and closer to their friends and family; it is integrating the village into the broader environment, which is all part of Zain's theme of creating a wonderful world," it said.
The statement said Zain Ghana would implement a similar project in the Millennium Village of Bonsaaso in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region to help improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of this cluster of villages.