Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Use of ICT

The use of ICT is gradually gaining prominence in the municipal assembly especially for human resource management and recently the installation of the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) infrastructure. The assembly is however yet to take full advantage of ICT in its data management, revenue generation and investment promotion. The Assembly is in the process of opening its first ever website which is expected to be used to project and promote it to the outside world and business communities. The challenge to a complete roll-out of ICT infrastructure is the lack of reliable network. There is thus the need for government to support the assembly by linking the municipality to the roll-out of the fibre optic facility and construction of the e-governance telecommunication infrastructure to improve network access.

Ownership of Mobile Phones and Use of Internet

Cellular phone has formally become the most widely-used telecommunication tool in the Municipality and has been spreading faster than any telecommunication technology. About 79 percent of households own mobile phones in the Municipality. It was revealed that, 54.8 percent of males 12 years and older owned mobile phones whiles females recorded 46.2 percent. The Internet has become a very useful communication facility for people, businesses and organizations. Some of the common uses of the Internet include electronic mailing, accessing information, conducting business transactions, social networking and shopping. Again, 59.7 percent of all households headed by males have internet access whiles 40.3 percent of households headed by females could access internet in the municipality.

ICT and Education

The use of ICT in schools would have positive effects such as, acquisition of knowledge on any subject from the internet, promotion of electronic learning (that is Distance Learning) leading to acquisition of academic certificates and degrees at one’s own convenience. Some basic schools in the Municipality benefitted from the provision of laptops under the Government Policy of one (1) child one (1) laptop which was on pilot basis while almost all the second cycle schools have well equipped ICT laboratories.  The promotion of ICT has helped students to check their BECE and WASCE results online, register for tertiary education, promotion of cultural exchange among others.

There are however challenges in the teaching of ICT in schools in the municipality. Some of which are; lack of adequate qualified trained ICT Teachers, lack of computers in schools together with computer laboratories, lack of electricity in many schools. There is therefore the need to invest in ICT training for teachers, setting up of computer laboratories in schools and connection of schools to electricity.

Telecommunication

Telecommunication services in the municipality have been developing over the years, especially with the introduction of the mobile phone net-works. Urban communities (including New Tafo, Kukurantumi, Old Tafo, Osiem etc) are currently connected to the national telecom grid, while other private telecommunication services have covered over 90% of the municipality.

Currently most communities have mobile commercial telephones.  As per the 2010 PHC half (50.3%) of the population in the Municipality has access to mobile phones. Out of that total, a little more than half (51.9%) are males and 48.1 percent females. Almost ten years into the conduct of the last census, this figure has certainly improved significantly due to the excessive crave by Ghanaians for mobile phones and social media applications. This situation has drastically reduced extent of travel and physical contact within and outside the municipality.
 

Accessibility to Transportation Services

Road transport is by far the most important mode of transport in the municipality.  The municipality has a fair distribution of accessible roads, majority of which link the Accra-Kumasi and Bunso-Koforidua trunk roads (Fig.1.11). Most people who live along these trunk roads have less travel time.

The conditions of feeder roads which form about 60% of the road network are generally poor.  Most of the feeder roads have deteriorated, with some even unmotorable. Surface accessibility is therefore poor especially in the rainy season. Presently, the railway transport is not in operation in the municipality. This adversely affects easy movement of heavy goods and other services.

Road accidents continue to be a major source of bother to the Assembly. Most of the accidents occur on the major trunk road Bunso-Koforidua and mostly at night and during rainfall. The frequency of road accidents exerts undue pressure on the health centres especially the Hawa Memorial Hospital at Osiem which receives accidents victims from the main Accra-Kumasi highway.

Development Implications

There is the need to improve the road networks in the municipality especially to feeder road system that lead to most of the farms. This will facilitate the carting of farm produce and reduce the incidence of post-harvest losses.

Access to Health facilities

Health care delivery in the municipality is basically by the public sector with private participation. There are 3 hospitals, 2 private clinics and 2 private maternity homes. There are 8 structured CHPS and 10 non-structured CHPS or outreach clinics. Compounds with 2 maternity homes in the Municipality.  Distribution of health facilities and personnel is however skewed in favour of the urban areas constituting about 70% of health facilities.

The availability of doctors in medical facilities across the municipality is an issue of serious concern in the midst of expanded healthcare infrastructure. With a high Doctor-to-Patients ratio the doctors in the municipality can be said to be overstressed and more efforts needs to be channeled in providing more staff accommodation to attract qualified doctors. The situation of nursing population has however improved marginally The spatial distribution of health facilities has been shown in Fig. 1.12.

Development Implications

Compared to the national average, number of health facilities and personal in the municipality could be said to be satisfactory. What needs to be done to improve health care delivery is to educate the populace on preventive health and ensure the provision of more CHPS to improve access to the rural communities.

Access to Extension Service

Agriculture is the main stay of the municipal economy registering over 58% of the labour force. Most of the farming activities are however at a small scale with the use of rudimentary implements and over reliance on the weather for water with its attendant low crop yield. The Municipal Department of Agriculture is responsible for the provision of agricultural extension services in the Municipality. It has a staff strength of 8 covering 12 operational areas.

This makes it very difficult to reach more farmers with more agricultural technologies in the Municipality. AEA-to-Farming Household Ratio is 1:580.  Besides the large farmer population each AEA has to attend to, they also lack the requisite logistics including motor bikes, GPS, vehicle to facilitate their work. The lack of motor bikes in particular deprives most of the farmers in poor rural communities the services of extension officers. There is the need for more AEAs together with adequate logistics for the Government’s flagship project on Planting for Food and Jobs to succeed.

Development Implications

The need to improve upon extension service delivery through improved staffing and provision of the needed logistics cannot be overemphasized.

Scalogram Analysis

To identify the presence or absence of services and facilities within the Municipality, the settlement functional matrix (Scalogram analysis) was used. This is a non-statistical tool that arrays facilities and services by their ubiquity and ranks settlements by functional complexity on a matrix. By this, the settlements were ranked based on the different types of facilities in the settlements. This is presented in the settlement functional matrix or Scalogram analysis in Table.

The scalogram reveals that only New Tafo, the commercial capital, has a centrality index of more than 580 and form the 1st hierarchy or Level 1 settlement. The second and third hierarchy settlements in the Municipality are Kukurantumi (the capital) and Osiem with centrality indices ranging from 410 to 420 while Old Tafo occupies the 4th level settlement with centrality index slightly below 200.Anyinasin and Tontro occupy the 5th and 6th level settlement with centrality index of 113 and 104.2 respectively. All the others have centrality indices of below 100. The scalogram analysis shows that most of the settlements are within the low order centers lacking the capacity to serve their hinterlands. This calls for more service to be provided for most of the communities with low access to facilities and service.