Accra, Aug. 25, GNA - Mr Kyle Whitehill, Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Ghana has urged government to ensure that revenue to be derived from the emerging oil industry is used for infrastructure development.

"The oil sector has the capacity to sustain accelerated development of the country, 93he added.

Mr Whitehill said that he was optimistic of a full push for key infrastructural development using oil revenue adding it would be a major way of working to change the face of financing development plans.

A statement issued in Accra on Wednesday and signed by Victoria Osafo, Director of Media Relations, Vodafone, said Mr Whitehill was speaking at the Second Graphic Communications Group Roundtable Forum aimed at promoting vibrant policy discourse in Ghana, in Accra.

He spoke on the subject 93Promoting Vibrant Policy Discourse in Ghana" on the theme: 93Ghana's Emerging Oil Economy: Prospects and Challenges".

The Vodafone Ghana, the nation's total telecommunications solutions provider, is this year's Lead Sponsor supported by GOIL, Merchant Bank, Metro TV, SIC and International Marine and Protective Coatings.

Mr Whitehill indicated that he believed Ghana needed a huge infrastructural investment, especially, in providing quality contemporary roads and a total transport system that would, seamlessly, connect the people and various communities in Ghana.

"The Ghanaian economy is going to see the birth of enormous economic opportunities; but the current public infrastructure would not be able to support what we are about to see in Ghana," he added.

He congratulated Ghana for developing a strong economy with the knack to drive the financial strength of the country, regardless of obvious difficulties that other African countries faced.

"Ghana deserves a lot of commendation for the hard work and resilience, over the years, to get to this stage where the country would very soon be called a member of the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries. We are all proud, indeed, of Ghana."

Mr Whitehill was quick to add that with Ghana turning into an oil economy, "there is a huge expectation from the entire world as well as the people

of Ghana for government to make this opportunity count for its people and the entire economy".

He noted that the telecom industry had a cardinal role to play as Ghana embarked on this journey by creating a robust investment in modern technology to meet the total communication needs of the country and operations of the giant companies that would drive the oil and gas industry.

"Vodafone has already started responding to these needs. We have invested and continue to invest in delivering mobile voice and data, fixed data, voice and video across the oil and gas community," he added.

Mr Whitehill said Vodafone was making strenuous efforts to transform fixed line services with new technology to provide first class services at the western corridor of the country.

"On Fibre, we are introducing a new technology to make it more robust, more reliable, faster and less-prone to cuts for 24/7 unbreakable services as we upgrade our Multiprotocol Layer Switch for the benefit of the oil and gas industry," he noted, adding that, "all of these investment would also benefit other sectors of the economy," he said.

Mr Whitehill said its Enterprise Unit was currently providing one stop telecommunication solutions for the mining sector of the country; "therefore we have a testimony to rely on."