Manya Krobo District residents appeal to NCA

Some communities in the Upper Manya Krobo District have expressed worry over the poor network services of mobile telecommunication companies in the area which is affecting trading and their businesses and appealed to the National Communication Authority (NCA) to compel the telecom companies to provide value for money services.

Their services are irregular and depend on the weather and the location where one finds himself and the worse affected communities are those found along the Afram River.

A team of Ghana News Agency (GNA) reporters working on a Star Ghana sponsored Media Auditing and Tracking of Development Project on their way to some communities in the Upper Manya Krobo District realized that their phone calls to their contact persons were not going through so out of curiosity decided to interview the residents on the issue.

Residents in the district are mainly farmers and fishermen who depend on sale of their produce and therefore rely much on communication network to transact business with their clients who come from various places.

According to residents of some of the affected communities, most of the telecommunications companies had no poles and believed that if transmission poles or mast were erected, the problem would be solved.

Mr John Akrong, a resident of Sesiamang, one of the affected communities along the hilly route to the riverside, sometimes for a whole week, they could not make or receive calls due to the poor network.

He said often such developments affects his trading business because his clients come from Accra and Koforidua to buy his farm produce on commercial basis to sell at the various markets and this affect their ability to schedule when his clients could come for their supplies.

Mr. Eben Osom, a resident of Akateng said, over the years, they have been faced with network challenges making them loss their customers who trade with them and said at times we have to climb to the hilly areas, stand at vantage points in other to access the phone but even that is not a guarantee for a clear signals.

He said the situation make armed robbers to take advantage of the situation and rob market women of their money because they lacked access to telephone service to solicit for help and appealed to the telecommunications companies to improve upon their services in the area.