By Prince Acquah
Cape Coast, April 22, GNA – Telecommunications giant MTN Ghana has intensified actions to enhance reliable service delivery with a three-day community engagement in Enchi in the Aowin Traditional Area to stop fibre cuts and fuel theft.
The company engaged various stakeholders in the community including traditional leaders, youth groups, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the Muslim community, and the media to sensitise them to the implications of fibre destructions on service delivery.
Mr Maxwell Acquah, the Network Group Manager, pointed out illegal miners, palm wine tappers and farmers as chief perpetrators of fibre cuts, causing disruptions to the network despite persistent warnings.
The situation, he said, was compounded by fuel theft and unstable power supply from ECG.
“The palm wine tappers destroy our cables to remove the pipes for their distillation. It is quite disturbing,” he noted.
The Network Group Manager indicated that such acts were both disruptive and costly.
He called for the support of the community members to protect the network infrastructure, explaining that ensuring a stable network was a collective responsibility.
In some communities, the MTN had been forced to lay their cables on the poles to mitigate the destructions, he said.
Mr Acquah noted that they had been reluctant in prosecuting offenders with the hope that consistent education and sensitisation would eventually yield results.
“We don’t believe in punishing people always to do the right thing and so we visit various communities from time to time to educate them,” he said.
To restore network stability, he indicated that the Company responded swiftly to fibre cuts as they received real-time notifications on when and where they happened.
He assured that they were investing heavily in connecting Enchi to 4G and 4Gplus services.
Mr Kennedy Ofosuhene, the Corporate Services Advisor, sensitised the community to the MTN Ghana Foundation and how they could benefit from the Foundation’s numerous social initiatives.
He informed them about the Bright Scholarship for needy but brilliant students, announcing that application had opened for 500 students across the country this year.
He explained that beneficiaries would receive support for accommodation, tuition, monthly stipends and laptops.
He added that the Foundation also held blood donation campaigns in February every year to restock blood banks in various hospitals to help save lives.
GNA
Edited by Alice Tettey/Benjamin Mensah