The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), Rashid Tanko Computer, has disclosed that the Volta Region was disadvantaged in previous rural telephony deployments, prompting the agency to allocate additional sites to underserved communities under its current expansion programme.
The CEO made the disclosure during an interaction with journalists at the Adaklu-Kpetsu Rural Telephony Project (RTP) site, as part of a two-day tour of the Volta Region with the Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Hon. Samuel Nartey George.
He said an assessment conducted after assuming office revealed disparities in the distribution of rural telephony infrastructure, necessitating measures to improve coverage in areas that had not benefited adequately from earlier deployments.
“When we came in, we did the assessment and we realised that, in fact, Volta Region was disadvantaged in the previous deployment,” he said.
According to the Tank Computer, earlier deployments appeared to favour the southern part of the country, particularly the Ashanti and Eastern regions, while the Volta Region received fewer sites than it required.
He also alleged that some equipment associated with previous deployments had been abandoned without installation, raising concerns about how the infrastructure had been distributed and implemented.
“When they started the deployment, we saw some skewed deployment to the southern part, especially Ashanti and Eastern, which had a lot of the rural telephony sites,” he stated.
Rashid Tanko Computer said he subsequently directed his team to inspect the installations and equipment from previous deployments to establish the extent of the problem.
He explained that the findings informed GIFEC’s decision to allocate more rural telephony sites to the Volta Region to help bridge the connectivity gap.
Adaklu District alone has been allocated 13 rural telephony sites under the ongoing deployment, which is expected to connect underserved communities to existing telecommunications networks.
The CEO commended the Volta Regional Minister, Hon. James Gunu, and the district-level authorities for their support in securing land and facilitating the establishment of the infrastructure.
He explained that the project uses roaming technology supported by the existing spectrum of mobile network operators. Technical teams must first take site coordinates and conduct simulations to identify suitable donor sites capable of supplying signals to the new installations.
Tanko Computer further disclosed that more than 460 new rural telephony sites were being deployed nationwide, with the agency targeting the end of November for them to become operational.
The inspections formed part of the two-day regional tour by Hon. Samuel Nartey George to assess rural telephony infrastructure and centres under the government’s One Million Coders Programme.
The expansion is intended to improve access to telecommunications services in underserved communities and reduce the connectivity disparities affecting rural areas.
