Residents Of Adounya And Five Other Communities Unable To Connect To The Internet

Residents of Adounya, a rural community and five other communities located in the Sunyani West Municipality in the Bono Region of Ghana, are still struggling with mobile connectivity and are therefore unable to use the internet, they are appealing to the Ministry of Communication and Digitalization to enhance mobile connectivity in the areas.

Residents in these areas have to trek 7 kilometers to Nsoatre, the district capital of the Sunyani West Municipality before they are able to use the internet.

Statistics from Digital Report on Ghana has it that there were 41.69 million mobile connections in Ghana as at January 2021. Apart from mobile phones being used as medium of communication, it has become the easiest means of sending money through what is called Mobile Money(MoMo).

Through the Government of Ghana under the Ministry of Communication and Digitalization and the Ghana Investment Fund For Electronic Communications (GIFEC) in collaboration with four telecommunication networks including; MTN, Vodafone, Glo and Airteltigo there has been an improvement in mobile telecommunication connectivity in some rural communities under the Ghana Rural Telephony And Digital Inclusion Project.

However, despite this intervention there are still many dotted communities across Ghana ,that are still not connected to mobile telecommunication making internet usage a big challenge.

Hundreds of residents of Adounya  and  other communities including; Ama Tawiakrom, Plotso, Krobo Number 1 and 2 who are predominately farmers, are unable to make calls and also make use mobile money  because of poor connectivity. Residents in these areas have to either climb trees or hills to make calls to friends and business partners.

The communities are totally cut off from the rest of the district because of the poor mobile connectivity which is affecting their lives in the area of health, education and business.

A teacher at Adounya Basic School, Kingsley Awuah in an interview First News said, “We are unable to use the internet to conduct research to teach our students because there is no mobile connectivity here. We have to trek 7 kilometers to Nsoatre before we can connect to the internet. Apart from this ,when we come to school, we are unable to make calls the whole day. This is worrying and something needs to be done about it.”

The situation is also affecting healthcare delivery in the area because Health Officers at the Adounya Health Center are unable to retrieve the details of National Health Insurance Scheme cards holders  who visit the centre to seek for healthcare.

Thomas Ankama, a Health Assistant at the health center noted that the absence of the internet in the community is affecting health delivery.

“Because we are unable to verify  their NHIS cards to know whether they are active or not, sometimes we run at a loss because later when we are able to connect to the internet at the Nsoatre, the District capital, we realized most of the NHIS cards are not active but we might have given them the medicines already, the centre has to pay for it.”

Ama Prudence, a business woman on her part said she is unable to connect with her partners at Nsoatre to send her goods unless she travels to the community.

The Assembly Member for Adounya Electoral Area, Raymond Keleeye on his part is applying to the Ministry of Communication and Digitalization to enhance mobile connectivity in his area.

“We will be grateful if the Ministry of Communication and Digitalization can extend their poles to this area to enhance mobile connectivity.”

Speaking to authorities, the Municipal Chief Executive for the area, Kwasi Boadum says he will be informing the Minister of Communication and Digitalization about the mobile connectivity challenges in Adounya and the other adjoining communities.

Story By: Michael Sarpong Mfum

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