Telecoms companies, regulators and ICT experts have joint the people of Ghana in mourning over the passing of the late President John Evans Atta Mills on Tuesday.
The late president celebrated his 68th birthday only two days ago. Following his passing away, the Vice President John Dramani Mahama was sworn-in yesterday as the President of Ghana.
Expressing their grief over the passing of the late president, the director of communications at Airtel Ghana, Donald Gwira and his colleagues in the telecom and ICT industry accredited the expansion of the Ghana’s tech sector to the late President Mills.
They mentioned that the introduction of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) two years ago has led to creativity and improvement of telecom services in the mourning West African country.
Mr Gwira said; “The late President will be remembered for his great contributions to the ICT and telecom industry”.
An ICT expert, Alhassan Rahman, said that the liberalisation of the country’s telecoms industry was championed by the late President, even when he was the Ghana’s Vice President.
He added that fibre optic backbone connectivity became prevalent under the watch of the former President. Also, Glo Mobile started operations during his tenure.
Under his leadership, the government facilitated the development of a reliable and cost-effective communications infrastructure and services, driven by approach technological innovations and accessible to all citizens to enhance the promotion of economic competitiveness in a knowledge-based environment, Mr Rahman indicated.
The enabling environment provided by the late President’s government continues to promote competition among telecom operators in the sector resulting in tremendous growth in telephones subscriptions of fixed line and mobile telephone sub sectors.
The mobile penetration rate increased from 52.6% in 2008 to about 85% in January 2012. This represents about 32.4% growth, according to the Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu.
The fixed line subscriptions shot up from about 143,900 to 266,194, representing an 84.9% increase over the 2008 figure.
The late President also drove the construction of the state-of-the-art National Information Communication Technology (ICT) Park in the country.
He recently cut a sod for the construction of the $15 million project at the Tema Free Zones Enclave in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.
The project is being constructed by a Ghanaian-owned construction firm, Berock Ventures Ltd (BVL), will serve as hub for ICT in the entire country.
The 20 hectare project which is first Technology Park in West Africa has commenced with a first phase of 7.25 hectares in the Free Zones Enclave in Tema. This phase is being funded by the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and is expected to be completed in 15 months.
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