He said this, when he inspected select Cyberlabs, Community ICT Centres (CICs) and Rural Telephony Sites, and engaged key stakeholders of the Fund in Western Region.  

The Administrator, together with a Technical Support Team, the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Amenfi Central – Mr. P.H. Amponteng and Mr. Lord Nana Tandoh – Municipal Chief Executive of Amenfi West Municipality, visited newly-constructed Community ICT Centres (CICs), new Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Cell Sites and an existing Cyberlab at Manso Amenfi and Amuni.  

He indicated that equipment will soon be deployed to the new CICs for their operationalisation, and reiterated the need to establish Municipal/District multi-stakeholder Management Committees to manage and maintain the ICT centres, to continue to benefit the people of the community.  

He also mentioned that some of the CICs will facilitate the training of over 10,000 citizens this year, as part of GIFEC’s ICT Capacity Building and Skills Development Programme.  

He admonished the communities to develop a solid maintenance culture, supported by a similarly improving culture at GIFEC, to ensure the people continue to benefit from these resources for a longer time. 

Mr. Sefah also inspected Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project Sites at Amuni and Nkakaa, both in the Amenfi Central District. The project is being implemented by GIFEC on behalf of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, under the leadership of Hon. Mrs.  Ursula Owusu-Ekuful (MP and Sector Minister), as part of Government’s unprecedented $200 million Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project, which started in 2020 and slated to be completed in 2023, and which is to build 2,016 Rural Network Sites. The project has built about half of the planned 2,016 Sites so far. 

He highlighted the uniqueness of the Nkakaa Site, which uses Aerial Fibre technology, a solution used in communities with difficult topography, and is being deployed in five (5) communities within the Western and Western North Regions, in order to overcome technical constraints that had hitherto made it impossible for these communities to get cell phone Network Access.  

Mr. Sefah also paid a Courtesy Call on the Chief of Amuni, Nana Twumasi Ampaw, who communicated his utmost appreciation to GIFEC for its intervention and encouraged more engagements for enhanced relationship between the community and GIFEC. There, Mr. Sefah responded to reports of unstable electricity in the area with a promise to get back with a possible solar-powered solution. He also promised to explore adding another Site in the area, to improve the quality of the Network. 

Earlier on, on July 1st, in Takoradi, Mr. Sefah engaged Skyy Power 93.5 FM to share more with listeners across the Region on what does, including the organisation’s increased projects and activities because of unprecedented investments of this government in digitalising the country.  

His visit to the Western Region forms part of his tour of GIFEC Project Sites across the country to inspect and engage with key Stakeholders. He had recently visited the Central and Ashanti Regions. 

He said this, during interviews on Ghana’s Digitalisation Agenda, at Homebase TV and Kessben FM, adding that 260 out of 510 completed sites are active and providing service to Ghanaians across the country. He reiterated the commitment of the Akufo-Addo Administration to ensuring 99% telephony coverage by December 2024.

Mr. Sefah highlighted key achievements in the Digitalisation space, emphasizing that “Digitalisation extends beyond network provision, it includes capacity building and other ICTs”. To this end therefore, GIFEC is providing various forms of tailored training for beneficiaries from different sectors of the economy. Through GIFEC’s intervention, over 500,000 persons have been trained in order to fully participate in the current digital economy. This includes teachers, students, traders, artisans and women entrepreneurs.

In his interview, he restated his commitment to conduct more follow ups to promote effectiveness and enhancement of GIFEC’s training programs such as, Girls in ICT and Coding for Kids which is a project to give opportunity to kids and the youth to explore the world of technology through the creation of websites, computer games, animation stories, mobile apps and interactive arts.

He finally touched on the need for all sim cards to be registered to eliminate the existence of SIM frauds. As a method to safeguard the registration process he encouraged Ghanaians to embrace the verification stage of the sim registration process as it serves as a second or extra layer of security that is used to make sure that the person linking the SIM card to the Ghana card (National ID) is who they say they are.

The initiative forms part of efforts by GIFEC to enhance the digital skills of Persons with Disability (PWDs) to make them competitive in the turbulent job market, in line with government’s digitization agenda. The programme also promises to technologically equip the visually impaired to reduce their reliance on manual braille devices

The laboratory has been equipped with 30 computer desks and seats and 25 desktop computers with Non-Visual Desktop Access (NVDA), an assistive technology which translates visual information into forms which are useful to users via non-visual means such as text-to-speech and sound icons. In addition, 25 headphones and 25 UPS were added to expand the opportunities and longevity of the computers. The braille printer has also been refurbished to continue to serve the needs of the students.

Commissioning the laboratory, Alhaji Faisal Issahaku Gbanjili (Director, Sustainability and Partnership) of GIFEC reiterated government’s commitment to an all-inclusive digitization agenda, adding that “His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo continues to place much credence and recognition on the important contribution of ICT to the economy.”

He said that “the NPP Government in its 2016 manifesto promised to modernize, improve and resource special training schools, identify and build the ICT capacities of our brothers and sisters with disabilities.”

The ICT support to the Akropong School for the Blind forms part of GIFEC’s Special Digital Literacy and Inclusive Connectivity Programme. The programme targets to deliver over 1,000 digital learning devices to persons with special needs and ultimately socialise our learners to digital learning.