Orgernya residents climb hill to make and receive calls

Residents in Orgernya, Klo Djekiti and over 20 other surrounding farming communities in Lower Manya Krobo Municipality of the Eastern region do not have access to mobile network services.

A house on a hilltop is the only place residents could access a very weak network signal of MTN hence the house has become a call centre where calls are made and received by inhabitants in the village.

A small wooden structure erected in the middle of the house is where the network signal can only be accessed. Residents have to stand behind it without moving an inch to make calls in turns.

A mobile phone holder has been fixed under the structure where a mobile phone can be placed to make emergency calls when raining.

For those who have scheduled to receive calls, their mobile phones are put on top of the wooden structure to await calls from their families, Children and customers.

A visit to the village by Starr News saw some residents trudge to the house to make calls while others were hanging around waiting to receive calls ahead of scheduled time.

The walls of a wooden structure in the house has been inundated with mobile numbers “saved” on the walls by residents for easy access and dialling.

“Access to mobile network services here is very difficult. There is no network coverage so this house on a hilltop is where we all come from our homes to make calls. You have to stand like a statue behind this structure to be able to make calls, “a resident told Starr News.

“When we book appointment with traders to supply them vegetables and maybe something happens which the trader is not able to come to the market because of network challenge she is not able to inform us so you will harvest your farm produce but she will not be present to buy then you have to sell it cheap else it will rot” another farmer lamented.

Agbertey Tetteh a Chief in the area said “sometimes when there is emergency like a woman in labour or someone is critically ill, you have to call people to come and help either bring motorbike or carry her to hospital but there is no network bso you have to run to this place to make that call”

“For those of us who have children in school, we schedule a time with them when to call so we come here to wait for their calls. Sometimes you have to wait for long hours before the call comes through. Our biggest challenge is during snake bite where we have to get people to rush the victim to the hospital”.

A major road from Oborpah to Orgenya Djekiti has deteriorated hence not motorable. The no network coverage deepens the woes of residents who feel disconnected from the rest of the country.

The situation is also affecting healthcare delivery.

“Network is very difficult so you have to be roaming till you get to a point sometimes when you get to the junction at the top there it is quite a distance before you can get that access to make phone call. It affects productivity you have to struggle a lot to just attend to something small that if everything is around you can just attend to it within a shortest possible time and if complications sets in then you are in trouble” Salomey Okpoti Senior Community Nurse at Klo Djekiti told Starr News.

Although Ghana has the highest mobile penetration in West Africa and already outperforms many of its regional peers with 16.7 million unique mobile subscribers, 15.1 million smartphone devices and 10.7 million mobile internet users in the country as of third quarter of 2019, many rural communities are still not able to access mobile network services.

Orgernya Djekiti and its surrounding communities in Lower Manya Krobo Municipality of the Eastern region are among those farming communities struggling to access mobile network services a situation affecting agribusiness, Health and Education.

The Sustainable development Goal 9 enjoins countries to building resilient infrastructure and fostering innovation, particularly through increasing access to ICT.