Mr. Eben Albertyn, Chief Technical Officer of MTN Ghana, on Wednesday expressed worry over the low level capacity of rural dwellers to harness potentials of the internet to market their produce.
In addition, he expressed dissatisfaction in the frequent interruptions in telecommunication connectivity describing it as a second major challenge facing telecommunication service providers in the industry.
Mr. Albertyn made the observation when speaking on the topic: "Building Infrastructure: How Africa's undersea cables would help accelerate
connectivity and provide affordable broadband", at the on-going three-day Fifth Annual African Regional Conference on rural communication in Accra.
The conference organised by Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), is under the theme: "Connecting Rural Africa on a
Cost-Effective, Sustainable and Profitable Basis through Government-Led Public Private Peoples Partnerships."
Mr. Albertyn described the low level capacity of rural dwellers to access the internet and its subsequent use to market their produce, as
outside the telecommunication service operators' control.
He explained that though internet services had been provided at a connectivity that was "near European speed", the capacity for rural
dwellers, especially to harness its socio-economic potential, left much to be desired.
"Connectivity alone is not enough to help the woman who lives in Tamale, for instance, to type his backyard kente cloth factory on the
internet to enable her sell to someone on the West coast of America", he said, adding the challenge needed to be met if broadband penetration in the country was to serve as a crucial element for development.
Mr. Albertyn conceded that though the fibre optic network technology deployed by MTN in the country was not enormous by world standards, it
suffered daily "extreme interruptions" due to many factors.
The interruptions, which according to him occurred nine-and-a-half hours on the average and about three times daily, were caused by factors
including road construction, inadequate infrastructure space and people building on the right of way.
Participants at the conference included stakeholders in the telecommunication industry, service providers, vendors and experts in the
ICT industry.
They are expected to discuss topics on rural community communication networks, rural network technology optimisation and economics, local
e-content generation, narrowband and broadband application services, mobile banking and mobile money transfer, telecentres and information communication technology training.