Coronavirus: High cost of internet a major challenge – Hubtel CEO

CEO of Hubtel Ghana, Alex Bram, has said the high cost of internet service in Ghana during this time of the coronavirus outbreak poses a challenge to businesses and Ghanaians in general as they deal with the effect of the pandemic.

He noted that workers in Ghana are spending huge amount of money on internet because they are working from home. This situation, he said is a challenge which must be addressed by the government.

He said these when speaking on the Business Focus programme hosted by Alfred Ocansey on TV3 Monday April 13, regarding the lockdown of some parts of the country over the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Bram explained that : “This is going to force everybody to think about new ways of doing things. So in many ways it is going to accelerate our already existing path towards these technologies and how they are going to impact our life.

“It is not a bad situation for the world, I think it is really a good time for all us to think about these possibilities that we all don’t have to go to work and be chained to a desk top and work. Some of us can actually begin to think of new ways of work because we have the technologies to achieve work.”

He added : “What we look at as work will have to change for some people, It will not change for everybody, for example the construction sector, doctors and some profession they will still have to be present to get the work done. I think it is a good time for us to look at innovation.”

Regarding the quality of internet service in Ghana, he said : “For Ghana we are far better than most countries despite the problems and challenges that we have with the internet service delivery. 4G is fairly widely available, fiber broadband availability to home is also fairly available.

“The problem is cost and accessibility so I think this is a good time for business people, for government or policy makers to take advantage of to accelerate.

“The government for the past three years has been preaching digitization and so this is perhaps the time for us to accelerate it. This is a smart new world.”