The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) has been commended for its strong operational and financial position by a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.
GIFEC is an Implementing Agency of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation responsible for programmes to close the Digital Divide.
Mr Isaac Yaw Opoku – Member of Parliament for Offinso South Constituency, who led the review of GIFEC’s statement of operations and financial position by the PAC, observed that GIFEC posted an impressive 7.2 per cent increase in surplus of income over expenditure, compared to the previous year, significantly improving its liquidity as a result.
He said GIFEC’s “financial position is very good. Non-current assets increased by 14.5 per cent, and current assets by 20.1 per cent. Their liquidity position is very strong and (has) even improved over the previous year. In fact, they did well and need to be commended”.
On the progress of the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project (GRT&DIP), GIFEC’s flagship project, Mr Prince Ofosu Sefah, Administrator (CEO) of GIFEC, spoke about its unprecedented nature, which began in late 2020.
He mentioned that 473 out of the 1,008 (50 per cent of the planned 2,016 Rural Mobile Sites being deployed by the Project) have completed and were active and delivering voice and data services to citizens.
He assured the Committee that plans were far advanced and efforts were being expedited to resolve all technical difficulties being encountered to ensure that the remaining sites were all built and activated this year.
He said equipment for the construction of the remaining 50 per cent of the 2,016 sites had arrived, awaiting funding for deployment which is expected in the near future.
The GRT&DIP forms part of GIFEC’s flagship Rural Telephony Programme which is funded by the Government of Ghana (GoG) through a strategic agreement with Huawei and China National Technical Import & Export Corporation (CNTIC), funded by the China EXIM Bank, to establish 2,016 Rural Telephony Sites in as many communities across the country, envisioned to provide mobile network coverage to about 3.4 million more citizens.
GIFEC supervises the implementation of this Project, working with Technical Partners, on behalf of the Government of Ghana represented by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation (MoCD).
BY TIMES REPORTER
