Despite the Country’s mobile penetration rate being pegged around 60 percent, there are loopholes and accessibility challenges for most rural parts of the Country.
Western Province Permanent Secretary Simomo Akapelwa has disclosed that Sikongo District has been adversely hindered from leveling up with the rest of the Country, with its accessibility limited to 12 hours per day.
Sikongo District is among the 9 newly created districts and was separated from Kalabo in Western Province and hosts a population of 60, 000 people.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times (ZBT) Akapelwa said the only mobile network available in the district is Zamtel majorly because some of the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) do not see the viability of business in the district.
“You can only get to Sikongo on a mobile phone which is Zamtel only and its only from 8hrs to 19hrs beyond that there is no access, you should be able to ask Zamtel as to why we have such a situation because we want to have adequate accessibility, but that is not the situation on the ground maybe these people are business minded, and they think the volumes are not attractive to their investments,” he remarked.
Akapelwa also added that a large part of the District is not connected to the National Grid and this might have affected the overall mobile network access.
