2ND NATIONAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE CENTRE OPENED IN ASHANTI
The Response Service Centre |
The 2nd
National Emergency Response Centre has been opened at Nkwantakesee in the
Afigya Kwabre district of Ashanti to serve the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions.
The Centre is an initiative of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication of
the Ministry of Communications to serve as a one-stop call centre during
emergency situations anywhere in the operational areas.
The National Emergency
Response Service centre is a public project that seeks to create a common
platform that allows people to make calls about any emergency situation for
swift response.
The Centre’s main job is to receive distress calls from victims
of emergency situations or concerned members of the public and in turn inform
the relevant state agency to attend to such situations such as armed robbery
attack, flooding, wildfires, road accidents, mob attack among others.
Concerned
citizens can also report incidents of dangerous electrical problems that
endanger public security and safety or burst pipelines for immediate
intervention.
The toll-free service line which is ‘122’ can be called using any
of the telecommunication networks in the country with or without credit or
airtime and it will work alongside the existing known local emergency numbers
until the entire country is configured
to operate the system.
The initiative has now enabled Ghana to join the
international community to use a common telephone number for emergency response
to disasters and other similar situations.
The Service Centre is manned by
trained staff ready to receive distress calls at anytime. The Nkwantakesee
Service Centre is the 2nd in the country following the inauguration
of the Accra Centre some weeks ago with plans already in place for the 3rd
and last one to be opened in Tamale to serve the three regions of the north.
The Chief of Nkwantakesee, Nana Boakye Yam and the Afigya Kwabre District Chief
Executive, Mr. Kaakyire Oppong Kyekyeku, expressed gratitude to the government
for selecting the district to host the project since it will help open up the
area to the outside world as well as increase the revenue of the District
Assembly as well as create jobs.
The Administrator of GIFEC, Mr.
Kwabena Owusu Acheampong, disclosed that his organization will next year implement another project
code-named ‘TETRA Communications System’ which is a set of standards developed the
European Union Telecommunications Standardization Institute.
An official from
the Ministry of the Interior, Madam Adelaide Amoah Kumi, noted that national
socio-economic development is linked to national peace and security.
The
relevance and importance of the national emergency response service is
therefore very key to national security arrangements and that its usefulness
will be greatly felt in times of disasters.
The Director of Finance who
represented the Minister of Communications, Nana Asafoaa Agyei Tabi, noted that
the national emergency response service is part of a number of initiatives
being implemented by the ministry and that it is in the interest of public
safety and security.
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