The Akufo-Addo Bawumia government has been exposed for shockingly paying Busy Internet GHS56m for non-existing internet in several Free SHS.
According to Parliamentary records GHS56 million was paid to Busy Internet as an internet service provider for the NPP’s Free Wi-Fi policy.
It will be recalled that the Free Wi-Fi for Schools program was part of the NPP’s 2016 manifesto promise to provide free Wi-Fi for senior secondary and tertiary institutions nationwide, dedicated to learning, administration, and enhancing the capacity to do research.
The initiative was launched by Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on February 2020, to bridge the technology gap in the country and improve learning through internet use.
Dr. Bawumia at a town hall meeting in Kumasi in 2020 stated, “There is much knowledge on the internet, and we have to allow senior high schools to access that knowledge. We promised free Wi-Fi and we are going to deliver”.
The information gathered from the project contractor claimed that the Free Wi-Fi policy connected over 1000 institutions as of February 2024.
Four years after the launch of the Programme, the lofty promises are yet to be fulfilled, and several schools are without internet connection in Ghana.
Accra Academy, one of the schools connected to by the initiative, within a year the internet service was not working. A final year student stated, “The internet stopped working when we were in Form 2, We no longer use it at the ICT lab.”
At the Labone SHS in Accra according to them the IT infrastructure installed by the Akufo-Addo government never worked, at the Bolgatanga SHS the internet connectivity stopped working after a year.
In the Bono and Ahafo regions, the coordinators have insisted there is no Free Wi-Fi anywhere and added It was a white elephant.
Senior High Schools such as St Mary’s SHS, Korle Gonno, Fafraha Community Day SHS, Ada Technical, Nungua SHS, Presby SHS, Teshie Presbyterian SHS, Ashaiman SHS, Kpedze SHS, Toase SHS, Bawku and Adugyama SHSs have been without internet since.
Meanwhile, the service provider the Akufo-Addo Bawumia government paid GHS56 million has since folded with the contract now assigned to a company called Lifted Logistics which secured which only secured a conditional internet service provider (ISP) license in February 2024.
With most Schools across the country with no internet service, one will wonder what substantial work did Busy Internet provided for them to receive a whopping GHC56 million from the Akufo-Addo government.
