Contractors in charge of Ghana’s Rural Telephony Project (RTP) have thirty (30) days to complete all outstanding sites or face financial penalties, the Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, has warned.

The Prampram Member of Parliament made the statement after a two-day inspection tour of Rural Telephony Project installations and One Million Coders training centres in the Volta Region.

The RTP is a national initiative aimed at extending mobile phone and internet connectivity to rural, underserved and unserved communities where telecom operators would ordinarily not invest because of low commercial returns.

The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) implements the project. Speaking during a media engagement, Sam George expressed his discontent over the pace of work after full payment had been made to the contractors, citing the government’s commitment to expedite processes in sending essential telecommunications services to underserved communities.

He noted that an emergency meeting has been scheduled with the contractors, their subcontractors and the Administrator of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) for Tuesday in Accra.

The Minister also raised concern about the growing number of fibre-optic cable cuts, which keep disrupting mobile and internet services. Ghana recorded more than 4,000 fibre cuts by June this year, he said, and telecom operators spent over $20 million last year alone repairing damaged fibre infrastructure.

About the project The Rural Telephony Project (RTP) is Ghana's flagship initiative to extend mobile telephone and internet services to rural, underserved and unserved communities that are not commercially attractive to telecom operators. The project is implemented by the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) in collaboration with mobile network operators and telecommunications infrastructure partners.

The project has evolved in phases over the years. According to GIFEC, rural telephony infrastructure development began as far back as 2008, with approximately 120 telephony sites constructed between 2008 and 2018 to improve connectivity in remote parts of the country.

The project also received international recognition through the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which identified the Rural Telephony Project as operating between 1 March 2010 and 31 December 2015 as part of efforts to deliver voice and data services to sparsely populated communities.

A major expansion of the project was officially launched on 4 November 2020 by the Government of Ghana through the then Ministry of Communications, GIFEC and Huawei Technologies Ghana. The expanded phase introduced Huawei's RuralStar technology and sought to accelerate connectivity in areas that previously lacked reliable telecommunications services.