Minister of Communication, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has said government is working to ensure universal access to telephone services and internet connectivity across the country by the year 2020.

She said this has been the objective of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration so as to ensure equitable distribution of development.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful indicated that government was embarking on the Rural Telephony Project (RTP) to extend the coverage of telephone services and internet connection as part of efforts to achieve this development for all.

She said this at the inauguration of the Rural Telephony Project and ICT centre at Amantia in the Asante Akyem South District of the Ashanti Region on Monday, 27 August 2018 as part of her three-day tour to the region.

She also donated exercise books to the Amantia Junior High school.

The minister was accompanied by the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), Mr Kofi Asante.

She noted that the Rural Telephony Project embarked upon by GIFEC, under her ministry, seeks to extend the coverage of mobile telephone services to un-served and under-served communities, which the telecos are unable to expand their networks to cover due to commercial or teshnical constraints.



She noted that the extension of telephone services and internet connection to virtually every part of Ghana, will give students access to internet to improve their performance in ICT.

She said the RTP will also help to improve healthcare delivery, marketing of products, and also ensure that residents in the area get uninterrupted mobile telephone services.