Ghana: MTN invests in education and health projects
MTN has over the past 7 years spent and invested GH¢ 950,539.37 on various education and health projects across the Upper East Region.
Senior Manager in charge of Corporate Communications, Georgina Asare Fiagbenu, disclosed this at the 2014 MTN Editors’ Forum in Bolgatanga. Fiagbenu said the projects were executed through the MTN Ghana Foundation.
Fiagbenu mentioned a GH¢128,000 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centre provided for the St. Charles Basic Schools in Bolgatanga, full renovation of the Zuarungu Health centre and an incubator provided for the Zebilla District Hospital as a few of the numerous projects.
Meanwhile, the MTN Ghana Foundation is scheduled to inaugurate a CHPS compound at Azuribisi and a three-room health facility at the Ayamfooya Memorial Clinic in Kongo on 26th November, 2015.
Fiagbenu noted that MTN in its 22 operational countries around the world was often rated either first or second due to its coverage parameters and service delivery and that in Ghana, the network had more than 13.5 million subscribers. She revealed that since MTN took over Scancom in 2006 with only about 900 cell sites, the network now had more than 2000 2G sites and over 1000 3G cell sites across the country.
According to the Communications officer, while her company invested 244 million US Dollars in 2013 to improve network infrastructure and service quality, it pumped 311 million US Dollars into the same purpose in 2014.
According to AllAfrica, the Technical Head of Northern Ghana Operations of MTN, Charles Osei Akoto, in his presentation revealed that between 2012 and 2013, 42 cell sites have been modernized in the Upper East Region while the transmission capacity backbone had been increased from 256 megabyte per second to 1.8 gigabyte per second. Also, a 181 kilometre MTN fibre backbone had since been deployed connecting Bolgatanga to Tamale and to the national fibre network.
Akoto further revealed that every district capital in the Upper East Region had been hooked onto to the 3G platform. For instance, there are over 61 2G and 23 3G cell sites at vantage locations across the region which afford customers super-fast service on the network.
He however noted that frequent battery thefts at MTN cell sites, destruction of its fibre cables from construction works and floods during the rainy season were among major obstacles that often obstructed calls and other data traffic on the network. He appealed to the public and the media to be vigilant and help MTN in protecting its cell sites and fibre backbone from these destructive activities.
A presentation by the commercial unit of MTN indicated that there are about 185 active MTN mobile money merchants in the region, 30 activation agents, eight main branches and three sub-dealers in the Upper East region as part of efforts to make the brand the most accessible to customers and clients.