Finding a cell phone signal: How Sanguli locals deal with inadequate network
Five minutes to read
Sanguli people deal with inadequate cell network coverage by risking their lives for a signal.
Residents of Sanguli, a rural village in the Northern Region's Saboba District, congregate under a tree they jokingly refer to as "MTN" on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
However, the tree has turned into their sole chance of picking up a weak cellphone signal, so it's not for fun or shade.
This location serves as a lifeline for a community that is yearning to remain connected in an increasingly digital environment.
A resident named Esther (not her actual name) told Simon Unyan of Graphic Online about her experience.
To transmit mobile money to her brother in Tamale, she would often paddle several km to Saboba town.
Every time she tries to make a mobile money transaction, she has to pay GH30 for transportation when her old bicycle breaks down.
"We have to go to a nearby village with a signal even to get a MoMo alert," she said.
Not only are these frequent, perilous trips on gravel, steep roads annoying, but they are also hazardous.
Community opinion leader Nkunkpakikpe Dalafu recounted a terrible story of a pregnant lady who lost her unborn child because she was unable to seek for medical assistance.
Because we were unable to make emergency calls, he continued, "we've seen heartbreaking incidents — women losing pregnancies, others suffering complications, and even deaths."
Additionally, he said that people who went into the jungle at night to look for a signal had at least 15 snakebite incidents.
Poor network coverage has an impact on schooling as well. Because of the poor connection, teachers often decline posts to Sanguli, which hinders pupils' academic development and limits their options for the future.
A local university graduate named Gmajinbo Daniel described how he lost out on a career chance because recruiters were unable to get in touch with him.
He said that in order to keep in touch while looking for a job, he was forced to rent a room in Saboba.
The digital divide causes young people to lose out on online education, mobile banking, and mobile money vending enterprises.
It hinders economic expansion, restricts access to innovative farming practices, and exacerbates the poverty cycle.
The social repercussions are just as bad. According to Mabefam Konja, a distraught mother, her son's relationship is about to fall apart because of their ineffective communication.
"Saboba is where his girlfriend resides. Only when he visits there on market days do they converse. She said, "She's seeing someone else now."
Tensions in marriages are increasing. Spending hours in the forest looking for signs often results in miscommunications and suspicions of adultery.
When they see their partners conversing with a person of the other sex as they wait for a signal, some wives get suspicious. Families are being torn apart by it," said another neighbour.
Another local, Dalafu Emmanuel, drew attention to the North East Region's lack of a contemporary network tower connecting Saboba and Chereponi. In addition to interfering with communication, this distance makes farming and emergency response more difficult.
"This section is prone to accidents, and obtaining emergency assistance is quite difficult. The majority of us are farmers. Without dependable network connection, we are unable to get in touch with suppliers, customers, tractor operators, and agricultural officials throughout the growing and harvesting seasons.
Much of our product rots on the farm as a consequence," he bemoaned.
About 17 settlements make up the Sanguli Electoral Area, which still has poor or nonexistent cell service. In addition to communication, this has an impact on family life, business, emergency services, healthcare, and education.
The issue is made worse by Sanguli's closeness to Togo, even with the government's rural telephone initiative. Phones often switch to Togocel, the country's mobile network, which makes data and calls more costly and challenging.
Residents climb trees, hook phones to tree branches, or go far into the wilderness at strange hours out of desperation. Due to weak coverage, calls are often placed on speaker mode when they do get a signal, compromising privacy in the process.
Sanguli Electoral Area Assemblyman Tilako Timugnee Francis said that despite several requests to the district assembly, not much has changed. The assembly's temporary rural network booster is still not deployed.
"Connectivity is still questionable despite that intended intervention. We have yet to find a long-term answer," he said.
Some supplies were brought in one day, but it was simply a short-term solution. Sustainability is our main concern, particularly for a vast electoral region so near Togo. Even lights from Togo may be seen at night, and sometimes our phones connect to Togocel rather than local networks.
In order to stabilise the signal and avoid interference from foreign networks, he urged the government and telecom providers to build a permanent, contemporary telecom tower.
The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) is tasked with increasing telecom connectivity in underserved regions as part of its mission. Communities like Sanguli, meanwhile, are still cut off.
Locals are demanding immediate action. Connectivity is a question of safety, opportunity, and dignity for them; it is not a luxury.
In a time when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) heavily rely on internet access, Sanguli's tale serves as a potent warning that connection remains unattainable for many rural areas.
Sanguli is still left out of Ghana's digital transformation initiative, unable to fully engage in e-learning, telemedicine, mobile banking, or e-commerce. The right to connect, which many people take for granted, is all that the residents of Sanguli are requesting.
.jpg)
