(Ecofin Agency) - Ghana seeks $100 million to boost access to telecom services in rural zones. According to the communication minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful (photo), the network the country aims to develop will offer voice and data services to residents in zones that do not have telecom signals.

According to the minister, the government has already approved the project and her department is negotiating with the finance ministry to obtain the funds.

The country would like to "launch the project by the middle of next year [2019] once we’ve got a funding and we expect to complete it by the end of 2020”, the minister said. The goal of this project is to dynamize the country’s digital economy and further integrate rural population in the digital governance.

Ghana currently has a mobile telephony penetration rate of above 100% but the telecom network’s penetration rate is still lagging because of inefficient or inexistent telecom access in many regions in the country.

Thanks to private technical supports such as that from telecom giant Huawei, Ghana already succeeded in bringing the network to some remote areas but, much remains to be done to remove the rural part of the country from its digital isolation.