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Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
MORE than 10 NetOne base stations are set to be constructed in Gokwe South as a way of curbing network connectivity challenges in the area.

Recently, a base station was commissioned at Marapira Growth point and more are earmarked for construction.

The project is part of the company’s countrywide development programme targeting about 100 rural base stations under the China Exim Loan facility, which is set to extend NetOne’s coverage by more than one percent in the rural areas of Zimbabwe.

NetOne executive marketing director, Dr Eldrette Shereni, said the network provider had embarked on a nationwide network investment programme targeting mostly remote areas.

“Net One has been coming up with initiatives to address network coverage problems in Zimbabwe’s rural and remote areas with Gokwe included. We have presence in more than 10 areas in Gokwe and recently we have focused on Marapira in Gokwe South and we will be extending our presence to Kana, Manoti, Sengwa Bridge, Mbungu and other areas utilising Marapira as main base station site to link other base stations,” she said.

Dr Shereni said Marapira’s base station, was expected to serve over 10 000 people around places like Binga, Marapira, Sengwa and Manoti.
“Marapira was chosen to cover the large coverage gap between our existing functional base stations, that is, Gawa and Charama in Gokwe and Binga and Lupane Districts. We are currently developing a base station site at Mzola in Lupane district, 122 Km from Marapira. This site will also be used to extend coverage to Dandanda, Kenyandavu towards Gokwe District and to Lupane towards Nkayi District,” she explained.

Gokwe Katena headman, Mr Josiah Katena hailed the move saying it has gone a long way in serving cotton growers from traveling long distances to access cash.

“We have been travelling long distances to access One Wallet services. It was even difficult to inform relatives about a death because of unavailability of network. One would actually board a bus to go and make a phone call,” said the headman.

Net One intends to extent its coverage in rural areas to enable development in rural communities through mobile money services and access to broadband services.