Should The NCA Not Facilitate The Deployment Of TV White Space Technology To Empower Rural Ghana?

Apparently the National Communications Authority (NCA) is thinking of collaborating with the nation's existing telecommunications companies to extend internet access to people living in rural Ghana.

It is reported that funding will come from the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) - the object of which  is to promote digital inclusion. However, there is a far better alternative use for any such available funds. A deal with the telcos will not bring any innovation into Ghana's technology-ecospace whatsoever. That is for sure.
 
The question is: Would a little lateral thinking  on the NCA's part not prevent Ghana from losing a golden opportunity to deploy TV White Space technology to bring rural Ghana into the digital age - by providing that mostly deprived part of our nation with low-cost superfast (equivalent to 4G) broadband internet access delivered by local Ghanaian  start-up rural internet service providers?

With respect, rather than  waste its energies on the telcos, it would be far more beneficial for our nation were the NCA to talk to the  TV White Space Alliance, for example, to get technical partners for local start-ups interested in giving the rural demographic super-fast internet access.

Ditto talk to wealthy companies with a social conscience, which have a global footprint and are driven by innovation as well as underpinned  by a long-term-perspective-ethos when investing in emerging markets, such as Google and Microsoft - both of which already have plans for bringing internet access to rural Africa using TV White Space technology: and unlike the parsimonious telcos aren't constrained by a lack of  investable funds.

TV White Space technology will empower  rural Ghana in multiple ways: boost learning and teaching in rural schools; digitise healthcare  facilities; make District Assemblies more efficient; improve  the lot of smallholder farmers and micro-entrepreneurs; make the security agencies across rural Ghana much more effective; connect rural communities with similar  communities around the globe that they can exchange ideas with about overcoming challenges and creating wealth for themselves, etc., etc.

Indeed, one can't think of a better means of enabling rural Ghana to meet the UN SDGs in the shortest possible time than ensuring the availabilty of 4G internet access for rural communities - made possible by the deployment of TV White Space technolgy.

That is why the NCA  must seize this rare opportunity to empower rural Ghana by facilitating the deployment of bleeding-edge TV White Space technology to provide that part of our nation with superfast broadband internet access and bring it into the digital era finally.