The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) has completed 50% of its mobile connectivity programme in rural areas of the country, reports GhanaWeb. Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee earlier this week, GIFEC CEO Prince Ofosu Sefah revealed 1,008 of the 2,016 mobile sites being deployed under the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project had been constructed, of which 473 are already active and delivering voice and data services. Equipment for the remaining sites had been delivered, but GIFEC is awaiting funding for its deployment, he added.
The project forms part of GIFEC’s flagship rural telephony programme which is funded by the government through a strategic agreement with Huawei and the China National Technical Import & Export Corporation (CNTIC). The initiative, which commenced in 2020 and is also supported by the Export-Import Bank of China, seeks to deploy 2,016 rural telephony sites in remote communities across the country in partnership with operators, with the aim to provide mobile voice and data services to over 3.4 million people and increase national mobile population coverage to 95% by the end of 2023.