Government to develop fibre optic backbone

Government would proceed with the creation of fibre optic backbone for the communications industry to facilitate fair competition among service providers.

This would be done with existing state assets to reduce cost of communication.

This is the outcome of a committee President John Agyekum Kufuor appointed to advise him on the establishment of a communication infrastructure company for the development of Information Communications Technology (ICT).

President Kufuor, who was delivering his Third State of the Nation Address to Parliament on Thursday, said ICT provided the easiest route to link the rest of the world.

To that extent the President said: "The telephone network is being expanded and the project to provide telephone facilities, in every town with a senior secondary school or a training college is on course."

He said he would soon be commissioning the facilities in Kyebi, Asiakwa, and the expanded Sekondi Exchange and that in the next three years all the towns earmarked in all the 10 regions of the country would be connected.

"It is to the good of the nation that more and more young people are taking to the joys of the computer and the wonders of the Internet."

President Kufuor said the ICT Centre of Excellence that was being built near the State House in Accra, with the help from the Indian government would be completed during the middle of this year and it would have satellite centres in the rural areas in line with the government's policy to bring the technology to the rural people.

"The Centre will cater not only for Ghana but also for the entire Sub-Region and I look forward to it helping to expand our horizons to keep pace with the rest of the world."

The President said, "already, the continuing interests of international data processing companies, especially from the United States of America, which are setting up businesses in the country, go to emphasise the importance of this sector in generating well-paid employment for our youth."

President Kufuor said the government was making energy available, reliable and affordable for jobs that depended on it.

He said that two weeks ago, he signed an agreement for the construction of the West African Gas Pipeline, a big project with vast implications for the economies of the four countries that have signed up for it.

The countries are Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana.

The President said when the project was completed it would go a way to reduce the cost of energy to consumers and to industry in particular.

"At the moment, the country is having to depend on expensive crude oil imports to fuel thermal plants, which complement the hydro energy from Akosombo."

He said from recent reports, there was "reason for cautious optimism from the explorations for crude oil taking place in our offshore waters."

President Kufuor said Ghanaians should keep on praying for it.