Vodafone's café concept is bridging digital divide - Clients

Accra, June 22, GNA -Clients and patrons of Vodafone Ghana's internet cafés have lauded the introduction of the café concept saying it is an initiative that is bridging the digital divide nationwide.

They said even though the cafes came at a time when broadband access, across the country was at its low ebb, the Vodafone cafés had been instrumental in reducing the hassles of browsing.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday, Nana Otuo Acheampong Manu, Head of Consumer Fixed Promotions at Vodafone said Vodafone currently has 11 cafés spread across all 10 regional capitals in Ghana.

He said the café concept was introduced by the company in line with supporting Ghana's dream of bridging the digital divide.

Nana Manu said "the company was constantly working to ensure that they provide customers with the best of services at their internet cafes and would stop at nothing to give them the best".

He said Vodafone was working on special packages for its café clients, and one of these packages was the loyalty card.

Mrs Kate Amoo-Gottfried, Head of Retail Operations, noted that the number of visitors, who visited the company's Internet cafés had continued to increase since it was introduced.

She saidyoung students, who had never used the internet before, were now able to connect to the World Wide Web for the very first time or set up their own email account.

"It is exciting to be able to share such an incredible resource like the internet and be part of these first-time experiences for Ghana's youth", she added.

Vodafone was also powering private internet cafés as part its efforts to reach out to more people and thus increasing the total number of people, who have access to ICT, adding that the company would furnish these third party cafés with full Vodafone products to make their products and services easily available.

Master Martin Nsiah, an ICT student, believed that the Vodafone cafes have come as relief to internet users compared to the drudgery that was usually associated with some of the regular cafés that did not apply for the appropriate bundle category and thus create congestion on the lines.

Mr George Doe, Information Technology Specialist also said that he was a regular user of the Vodafone cafés and could testify that uploading and downloading speed were faster at these cafés.

Some customers also said the company should expand its cafés to accommodate more patrons while others urged Vodafone to give them discounts.

GNA