Take deliberate steps to address technological gap

By Gifty
Amofa/Mr William Fiabu, GNA

Accra, July 18, GNA – Mrs Ursula Owusu Ekuful,
Minister for Communication, has called on stakeholders in the Telecommunication
sector to deliberate and to provide technological inclusion for significant
portion of Ghana’s population in terms of Information Communication Technology
(ICT).

She said women, persons with disability, and other
vulnerable people should be helped to access ICT at the time when it had become
part of life.

“Just about 30 per cent of women use internet
on their mobile phones and we need to provide the opportunity for them to
utilise even more of the power and the energy that technology provides in their
daily lives,” she noted.

The Minister was speaking at the opening of
the three-day International Telecommunication Union Regional Development Forum
(ITU-RDF) for Africa in Accra.

This Conference is a follow-up to the World
Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) held in Argentina in 2017 on
how to localise ICT to meet the Strategic Development Goals (SDGs) on the theme
“ICT for SDGs towards the implementation of WTDC 2017 outcome indicating the
relevance of the realising UN-SDGs”

She urged them to put in place structures and
measures that would provide or lessen the gender digital divide that excluded
people with disability or the youth.

“We cannot limit technological advancement to
only those in the urban areas, thus expand to include; all the various unserved
and underserved communities in the country,” she emphasised.

She said by so doing, it would be easier to
implement all the electronic services such as the e-learning, e-Education,
e-health, mobile financial services.

Ghanaians in every part of the country should
be able to access the services and there was the need to put in place
infrastructure to make that happen.

“We need to give them the skills to enable
them take advantage of all these opportunities and government is investing a
lot in all these digital innovation.”

The Minister cited that prospective job
seekers and students were challenged when they were required to apply online or
check results online and all regional, district offices were asked to use more
technology as well as mobile financial services in place of paper work.

It is therefore imperative that inclusion is
deepened through the provision of infrastructure, affordable internet and give
people the requisite skills to access those services.

She said without the application of ICT, it
would be difficult to attain any of the SDGs by 2030 and hinted that Ghana’s
National Communication Authority (NCA) had developed a common monitoring
platform device which would assist in revenue assurance, monitoring of mobile
money, reducing fraud in telecommunication among others.

It is expected that it would be considered by
the ITU as Africans faced similar challenges and could be used in similar
solutions to address it and experience the knowledge sharing.

ICU has a standardisation laboratory, which is
used in testing and would be launched too and adapted to suit the common
challenges.

Mr Joseph Anokye, Director of the NCA in his
welcome address said African meeting on the ITU was represented by over 40
Countries from both public and private representation, showing the immerse
contribution made by it on the global union.

He called for a comprehensive dialogue among
ICT experts to strengthen the telecommunication sector in the various African
countries.

Mr Brahima Sanou, Director of the
Telecommunication Development Bureau (ITU-D) Technical Head of ITU-RDF, called
on the participants to give a human face to ICT by using it to empower not only
themselves, but also their communities and countries at large.

Also in attendance were representatives of
African Union organisations, Dr Mustapha Hamid, Minister of Information, Nii
Kinka Dowuona, President of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, Members
of Parliament, among others.

GNA

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