Fibre optic backbone to transform communities
The Director General of National Information Technology Agency (NITA), Mr William Tevie, has said the new Eastern Corridor optical backbone network will offer a great number of direct socio-economic benefits to communities within the project’s catchment area.
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He said the facility had no coverage limitation and could be tapped through any of the many technologies available.
Mr Tevie told newsmen in Ho that the project would attract new businesses, offer teaching and learning opportunities as well as telemedicine and new e-health services along towns on the Eastern Corridor.
Some of the towns are Ho, Kpando, Jasikan, Nkwanta, Bimbilla, Yendi, Tamale, Gushiegu, Bawku and 23 other (smaller) communities.
The project was executed by Alcatel-Lucent of Denmark under a concessionary loan of 38 million Euros from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA). The President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, inaugurated the facility a fortnight ago.
It spans 800 kilometres across 27 municipal and district assemblies on the Eastern Corridor from Ho to Bawku in the Upper East Region and Tamale in the Northern Region aimed at bridging the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) divide between rural and urban Ghana, as well as between the country and the advanced world.
The Vice-President of Alcatel-Lucent Africa, Mr Daniel Jaeger, said the project would help change the people’s way of life, work and communications, and also provide an important platform for sustainable growth and development.
“Alcatel-Lucent has long- standing expertise in internet protocol (IP) transport and we are delighted to be part of this project to support Ghana’s standing government initiative in continuously improving communication services for the country,” he stated.
He said Alcatel-Lucent was a global company working in 25 countries and building networks for governments in partnership with DANIDA in the implementation of ICT programmes, and added that the company adopted best practices in terms of labour and expertise to execute projects.
A doyen of information technology in Ghana, Professor Nii Quaynor, who chairs the NITA Board of Directors, said the emergence of a new class of human capital was inevitable and urged all to tap the new infrastructure for the improvement of lives.
He said the infrastructure could not be left unutilised or under-utilised and said the urge to develop new policies depended on the initiatives of communities.
Professor Quaynor said the new facility comprised a variety of components and must be harnessed for development in the catchment area and the nation as a whole.