By
Godwill Arthur-Mensah/Irene Esther Akrong, GNA
Accra, Oct. 1, GNA – Mr Ursula Owusu-Ekuful,
the Minister of Communications, on Monday announced a number of activities for
sustained public awareness creation and to ensure a proper cyber culture among
Ghanaians.
The activities included regional launches,
workshops for selected schools across the 10 regions, cyber security and
electronic evidence workshops for selected judges of the Supreme Court and
Court of Appeal for a frank exchange of ideas on cyber security.
Those workshops, she said, would help improve
the understanding of participants on the use of digital evidence in the
criminal justice administration and ensure that the nation reaped full
dividends in the digital economy.
Addressing key stakeholders at the launch of
the National Cyber Security Awareness Month and the National Cyber Security
Awareness Programme dubbed: “A Safer Digital Ghana”, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said it
was prudent to deepen international co-operation and dialogue, strengthening
relations between governments and regional blocs, as well as other partners, to
halt cybercrimes in view of the surge in the use of the Internet and other
digital tools.
Therefore, the Ministry would involve all
ECOWAS member countries in this year’s activities, through a joint
collaboration with the World Bank and the ECOWAS Commission.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said Ghana was positioning
herself as a hub for cybersecurity within the Sub-region, saying that, under
the Revised National Cybersecurity Strategy, there would be stakeholders’
consolations in the next five years on cybersecurity issues so that the country
would reap the full dividends from the emerging digital economy
She said the use of information communication
technology had witnessed tremendous growth over the years, which cut across the
various age groups, with the most vibrant users being between 18 and 20 years.
The 2016 Global Cyber Security Index, showed
that half of the world’s population used the Internet for various purposes,
with an estimation that by the year 2020, devices that would be connected to
the Internet would hit 12 billion.
In that regard, the Communications Minister
said there was the need to put measures in place to ensure safer cyber hygienic
practices to promote a secured digital ecosystem for all users, including
children, adults, businesses and governments.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful underscored the need for a
stronger legal regime particularly, in developing nations like Ghana to
fiercely combat the canker of cybercrimes.
Statistics released by the Ghana Interbank
Payment and Settlement Services (Ghpss) and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) showed that
almost a million transactions were recorded though the Mobile Money
Interoperability platform, as at the end of August 2018, barely three months
after the system was launched by the Vice President
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said the growing use of
digital services for businesses had become an irresistible target for
cybercriminals, therefore, there was the need to address cyber security
challenges as a matter of urgency, in order to reap the full dividends the
emerging digital economy brings to the citizenry to prevent it from becoming a
curse.
She underscored the need to strengthen
cybersecurity as a key foundation for Ghana’s digital economy, adding that last
year, the Ministry undertook a number of initiatives and established a National
Cyber Security Governance Framework, developed the Cyber Emergency Response
Team Ecosystem, as well as commissioned the Assessment of the State of Maturity
Cybersecurity, which was conducted by the World Bank in collaboration with the
Global Cyber Security.
The month-long programme aimed at educating
the public to safeguard the country’s cyber space would ensure a safer digital
citizenship at all levels to include children, public, business and government,
for their safety and the security of Ghana’s digital ecosystem.
The event, jointly organised by the Ministry
of Communications and the National Cyber Security Centre, brought together
Information Communication Technology Experts, Chief Executives of Ministries,
Departments and Agencies, Members of Parliament, Ministers of State and the
donor partners as well as traditional rulers and students.
A cyber security maturity study, commissioned
by the Ministry of Communications and conducted by the Global Cyber Security
Capacity Centre (GCSCC) of the University of Oxford in collaboration with the
World Bank, has described Ghana’s cyber security maturity level at a formative
stage based on the Cyber Security Capacity Maturity Model for nations adopted
for the study.
GNA