Ghana scores another first as offshore broadband takes off in 3 or 6 months

If the proposed take off date of the collaborative offshore broadband project between MTN Ghana and PARD Energy of Norway is met, Ghana will become the first country in Africa to have an offshore broadband network.

Even though Nigeria is the leading oil producer in West Africa, that country’s oil sector has no national offshore broadband network. Oil companies in Nigeria instead have individual broadband services.

Ghana will be following in the steps of developed oil producing countries like Norway in that regard.

Mr. Trygve Tamburstuen of PARD Energy answering questions during a one-day workshop in Accra in April said the project should be ready in six or nine months time. That was about three months ago and all things being equal, the country’s offshore broadband network which according to MTN and PARD Energy will also serve the downstream oil and gas sector will be up and running.

The service according PARD will meet the data storage and transfer requirements of the oil sector, both offshore and onshore.

Mr. Tamburstuen also said the project when completed will become a world class broadband solution.

And as a result of this development, Ghana’s ICT for Development policy will be reviewed to accommodate a broadband policy, digital mapping, cyber security and green ICT, according to Gideon Boye Quarcoo, the deputy minister of Communications.

Ghana is set to become an oil producer in December. And the major stakeholder in the country’s oil industry Tullow Oil says two of the country’s significant oil fields, the Tweneboa and Jubilee oil fields both contain a total of 2.9 billion barrels of oil.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi