The Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has inaugurated a telecom mast at Mile 3 in the Sefwi Wiawso District.  

She also inspected a yet-to-go-live telecom mast at Abrabra and Nkonya. The traditional leaders of Nkonya and Abrabra praised Mrs Owusu-Ekuful for fulfilling her promise to them prior to the 2020 elections.  

They, however, requested ICT labs in the community schools to encourage computer studies. Inaugurating the live telecom mast at Mile 3, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful, who is also the lawmaker for Ablekuma West, acknowledged the benefits of network connectivity, hence the need to increase and improve infrastructure in that regard.  

She was hopeful that all the constructed masts in the district will go live by the end of the year. "I know the benefits of network connectivity as it seeks to improve the digital economy through the digital infrastructure. My ministry is leaving no community behind and the government is committed to investing in this regard," she told the elated Mile 3 community.  

For his part, the newly-appointed Administrator of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), Mr Prince Sefah, said the phase one of the Rural Telephony Project involves constructing 2016 telecom sites to provide voice and 3G data connectivity to about 3 million Ghanaians in unserved and underserved communities.  

The Phase II of the project, which is being planned now, will plug any remaining gaps and upgrade the sites to 4G, he noted.  

The Director of Enterprise for Huawei, Brian Wu, asked the community to make good use of the resources available to them to become competitive and pledged their support to the Ministry in providing connectivity to the rural communities.  

Huawei donated school bags, pencils and pencil cases to the pupils in Mile 3, Abrabra and Nkonya.