The over 800 kilometres Fibre Optic Broadband Backbone Infrastructure project, stretching from Ho in the Volta Region to Bawku in the Upper East Region, with a link from Yendi to Tamale, both in the Northern Region, has been inaugurated by President John Dramani Mahama.
The 38 million euros project, which was undertaken by Alcatel-Lucent of Denmark and covers 27 municipal and district assemblies, has been extended to the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho.
Inaugurating the facility in Ho, President Mahama said the facility, funded by the Danish government, was one of the biggest investments the government had made, stressing the need for Ghanaians to use the fiber optic rural development facility to improve upon their lives.
According to him, the facility was one of the major development achievements of the country, because Ghana, according to records, had the fastest growing fiber optic facility in the West Africa sub-region.
President Mahama stated: “I can easily do WhatsApp, or you don’t know I also do it,” a statement, which threw many of the audience laughing.
He said Alcatel used local content in the discharge of the project, which created over 3,000 jobs for Ghanaians, adding that the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) would equally benefit from the fiber optic facility, assuring the people that work on the first phase of the permanent campus of UHAS would be completed soon for inauguration.
Mr. Mahama pointed out that the fiber optic would go a long way to promote distance education in the country, and urged students to make good use of the facility in their studies, and commended the Danish government and Alcatel for the display of professionalism in the execution of the project.
Mr. Mahama, therefore, charged government institutions in the area where the fiber optic facility was extended to, as a matter of importance, to put the facility to proper use, in order to ensure efficiency in the activities of Municipal and District Assemblies so that communities, as well as educational and health institutions, benefit from it.
He noted that the government had embarked upon numerous development activities, some of which were tangible, that could be touched and seen, but the fiber optic facility, which was buried under the ground, should be regarded as one of the valuable national development project, that was more than, as he put it “bricks and iron” structures.
President Mahama, therefore, called on both the government and private institutions in the country to take advantage of the available technologies to improve upon the work they do to improve upon their lives.
The Minister for Communications, Dr. Omane Boamah, said the fiber optic project, which started from Ho in the Volta Region to Bawku, Nakpaduri among others in the northern part of the country, would help the beneficiary communities enjoy internet facilities with very clear voice, video and data, and called on the people to put the facility to effective use to help accelerate the much-desired development.
Dr. Omani Boamah urged the people to own the facility by taking good care of it to help prolong its lifespan, adding that the usage of the facility was not going to be free, because revenue that would be generated from the users would help in paying the load, and encouraged the Assemblies to help connect relevant institutions to the facility.
The Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Mrs. Margit Thomsen, commended the government of Ghana for the continuous collaboration that exists between the two countries, which led to the smooth development being experienced, adding that the fiber optic facility would help modernise business activities through the use of modern communication facilities.
African Eye News.com
