Government to roll out Rural Telephony Initiative for communities by 2020

Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has announced that government is in the process of rolling out the Rural Telephony Initiative to extend voice and data services to all unserved and underserved rural communities by the end of 2020.

According to her, government is currently looking at the financing options to enable the initiative to roll out.

“We’re in the process of rolling out the Rural Telephony Initiative to serve rural communities by the end of 2020 and to that effect the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) will also work with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to utilize aerial fiber to extend connectivity through the country,” Owusu-Ekuful disclosed.

The Minister made this known to Members of Parliament on Monday, November 18, at the Parliamentary Debate on the 2020 Budget and Economic Policy in Accra.

Sim Re-Registration Exercise

Mrs. Owusu- Ekuful reiterated that early next year, her outfit will implement the re-registration of SIM cards to reduce the incidence of criminal usage of mobile devices.

According to her, the ministry is being given a six-month window to complete the process for infrastructure that will be used to re-register sim cards.

“By June 2020, all those SIM’s that have not registered will be deactivated and that will also give impetus to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) free roaming initiative to enhance regional integration and economic development to be implemented from January 2020,” she explained.