Over 130 villages have benefit from the China-Aided Satellite TV project for the designated 300 villages meant to benefit from the deal, StarTimes Chief Operations Officer, Felix Ahonzo has said.
In an interview with the Goldstreet Business, Ahonzo said these villages’ cuts across the nation, from the north to the south.
Ahonzo indicated that, presently, some installations are ongoing, while completion work are being done in Ashanti region, adding, “Works in Accra was completed last week Friday.
He said, “by Friday, November 16, we would be done with all the 300 villages, and we will be ready to handover to the Ministry of Communication.”
In all, 57 communities were selected from the Ashanti Region; 43 from the Eastern Region; 37 from the Greater Accra Region; and 35 from the Central Region.
The rest are 31 from the Brong Ahafo Region, while the Northern Region had 30 villages selected, Western Region had 24 and Volta Region had 18. Seventeen villages were selected from the Upper East Region and eight from the Upper West Region, totaling 300 communities.
Ahonzo revealed that the cost of the project is US$3 million. However, this does not include the operational cost, which has borne by StarTimes.
Background
The objective of the project is to provide satellite TV reception, with a bouquet of digital channels for a selected public area and 20 households in the 300 villages.
The project is being financed by a grant from the Chinese Government, and is expected to provide two sets of solar project TV systems plus one digital TV integrated with a decoder and digital decoder systems for these three hundred villages across the country.
In addition, public areas selected in each village will be equipped with 2 sets of solar-powered projection TV systems and a solar 32-inch digital TV – providing access to a bouquet of twenty (20) digital channels from StarTimes entertainment free of charge. The equipment in the public area is under a 5-year warranty.
StarTimes will be responsible for the maintenance and repair of the devices once installed – at no cost to the communities for the next five years. StarTimes is also expected to train 600 ambassadors, two people selected from each of the 300 communities, for installation and maintenance of the devices.
By Joshua W. Amlanu
