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President Kufuor performs ceremony to
begin work on broadband Project
Accra, Aug. 13, Ghanadot - President John Agyekum Kufuor, on
Monday, attended a ceremony to mark the formal commencement
of work on the 70-million-dollar landmark National
Communications Backbone Transmission Project that will
provide broadband transmission capacity for major parts of
the country.
The project, involves the laying of optic fiber across a
distance of 1,900 kilometers to link all the 10 regional
capitals and some 36 towns with enough capacity left to
extended North to neighboring Burkina Faso.
It is being implemented in two phases. Phase one is
scheduled for completion by January 2008, and entails the
upgrading and expansion of existing optical fiber network in
the Southern loop and the installation of 23 transmission
terminal equipment. This would extend to Tamale.
Expansion of the network to other parts of the Northern
Region and the development of 10 new sites, interconnection
of the northern loop with the south sites and connecting a
site at Navrongo to Burkina Faso would constitute the final
phase.
President Kufuor said the project should not only help to
reduce the cost of service but also enhance the quality of
service in the country's communications industry, which at
the moment left much to be desired.
"Ultimately, it should position Ghana as the preferred
destination for ICT businesses in the ECOWAS sub-region and
on the continent as a whole."
President Kufuor said ICT was now an indispensable tool for
enhancing innovation, competitiveness, modernization, and
for accessing many opportunities that would facilitate the
achievement of the country's development objectives, in
particular the Millennium Development Goals.
While, calling for co-operation of all stakeholders with the
contractors by way of the grant of rights-of-way and site
acquisition, he warned cable thieves to stay off the fibre
optic cable being laid, so as not to disrupt service
delivery.
"I am calling on the whole society to remain vigilant in
protecting the cables and to co-operate with the police and
other law enforcement agencies in apprehending the few bad
nuts in our midst."
President Kufuor asked the courts to impose stiffer
punishment on offenders.
The warning came as a result of reports that some miscreants
are tampering with the cables although the fibre optic
project does not contain copper and therefore has little
value to the cable thieves.
He also challenged the Chinese Contractors, Huawei
Technologies to be mindful of the high expectations of the
people and redouble their efforts to complete the project on
schedule.
Dr Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, Minister of Communications, said
upon completion, it would among other things increase access
of ICT services in rural areas, support the development of
ICT businesses, facilitate the implementation of
E-Government Programme and provide support to other critical
sectors of the economy like health, education and
agriculture to grow and create wealth.
Chinese Ambassador Yu Wenzhe, said its completion would add
a new page to the Ghana-China friendship.
Source GNA
Pictures from
the ceremony
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