Global supplier of GSM network infrastructure, Ericsson, and Millicom Ghana — operator of tiGO network — have entered into a partnership deal to extend communication services to 34 villages in the Mamprusi District in the northern part of the country.
The partnership deal, which falls under Ericsson’s Millennium Village concept, will involve the provision of infrastructure facilities including 10 base stations and cabling to enable tiGO — the telecom network operator — to extend communication services to one of the unserved areas in the country, which is inhabited by more than 30,000 people.
The country manager of Ericsson, Alan Triggs, said the initiative to extend communication services to underserved areas in the northern region ties into the company’s Networked Society initiative aimed at connecting the world through communication.
He said the Millennium Villages Project has demonstrated how ICT and broadband can be used to enhance development through projects ranging from mobile applications for decision-making support in the health sector, to the use of mobile phones for data collection and systems management, to classrooms enabled with innovative technologies.
“We believe in being the prime driver of communication in the world, and there is nothing better than the Millennium Village to bring that to life because we are providing communication services to a place where it never existed before.
“These villages that we target do not have communication services, fixed or mobile, and so we hope to bring voice and data services to them. Bridging the digital divide is one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), and we do this very rapidly in the village,” he said.
The Millennium Village project in the Mamprusi district is the second of such projects being undertaken by Ericsson in the country after successfully executing one at Borekusu in the Ashanti Region.
The project is expected to be completed within the next five years, after which the implementers expect the Village to be self-sustaining.
So far, the Millennium Villages are proving that by fighting poverty at the village level through community-led development, rural communities in the country can achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of improving education, health, gender equality and environmental sustainability by 2015.
“A key objective of the Village concept is to build sustainability. This is not a charity. This is to build a sustainable, growing and vibrant economy.
“We have seen with the earlier villages that the communication infrastructure we have helped to put in place is self-sustaining; people are paying to use it, and it is reaching a capacity that has to be expanded.
“So there will be a time in the future when this collection of villages will also need to expand the communication services that we have provided,” Mr. Triggs explained.
There are several compelling studies that have been conducted to assess the impact of communication services on the economy. According to the International Telecommunication Union, for every 10 percent increase in broadband users there is one percent increase in GDP. Also, for every 1,000 broadband users about 80 jobs are generated through direct and indirect means.
Mr. Triggs, in explaining how these jobs are created said: “You think of how that happens in terms of all works that require communication services, and none exist in these villages today. So by bringing communication services to these villages, we are enabling a tremendous number of jobs.
“And that is enormous.”
The acting General Manager of Millicom Ghana, Obafemi Banigbe, said the partnership with Ericsson follows a longstanding relationship with the network infrastructure supplier to support communities and improve lives.
“We already have services in nearby communities, and so we see the collaboration with Ericsson with respect to the MDGs to extend our services further to these areas as further development.
“This is an integrated project that involves schools, services, businesses and agriculture; it will help to increase the earning power of people so they can be able to afford communication services.
“This is for people and we are not a monopoly, so if another operator wants to come in, why not?” he said.
By Evans Boah-Mensah
