ACCRA, Ghana, 7th September: The government is prioritising the upgrade of aging 2G and 3G telecommunications infrastructure in rural Ghana as part of efforts to bridge the country’s digital divide.
The Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation, Sam Nartey George, said many rural communities continued to rely on legacy networks that could support basic voice calls and text messages but were inadequate for modern digital services.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series at the Presidency, Hon. Sam George said the situation was limiting the ability of rural communities to fully participate in Ghana’s growing digital economy.
He said a farmer in a community served only by 2G technology could make calls to check market prices but would struggle to list products on a digital marketplace, access real-time weather information or use digital financial services effectively.
According to the Minister, the ministry is therefore working with the National Communications Authority (NCA), the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) and mobile network operators to modernise rural infrastructure.
He said the focus was on upgrading aging 2G and 3G infrastructure to 4G and 5G-capable systems, supported by the fibre and microwave backhaul required to deliver genuine broadband services.
He said operators had been asked to ensure that newly constructed rural sites were 4G-ready from the outset.
He also said the government is encouraging the accelerated retirement of legacy-only equipment where traffic levels and terrain made such upgrades feasible.
He explained that the objective was not simply to ensure that rural communities had a telecommunications signal, but to provide connectivity capable of supporting services such as digital agriculture, e-learning, mobile money and telemedicine.
The Minister said the constituency-level mapping exercise undertaken by the ministry with Members of Parliament is helping to identify underserved communities and guide both new network construction and infrastructure upgrades.
He stressed that rural communities should not be left a generation behind urban centres in accessing technologies that are increasingly essential to education, commerce, healthcare and agriculture.
The Ningo-Prampram MP said the government would continue to report on the progress of the rural network modernisation programme on a community-by-community basis.
Story by: Emmanuel Romeo Tetteh(#RomeoWrites✍️)/ Presidential Affairs Correspondent | Ghana 🇬🇭