By
Maxwell Awumah, GNA
Accra, Dec 11, GNA –
Mr Vincent Sowah Odotei, Deputy Minister of Communication has assured that
government is committed to using technology to leverage on the digital drive
leaving no one behind.
He added that by
December 2020, as a policy, 95 percent of the population would be connected to
the Internet super-highway.
Mr Odotei said this
at the one-day Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) Coalition Meeting in
Accra.
The meeting was on
the theme, “Leave No One Behind: Advancing Ghana’s Digital Future Through
Meaningful Connectivity,” which attracted participants from government,
private and civil sector operators.
He said the future
was intrinsically linked to digital connectivity and the Ministry was focused
on achieving that policy.
The Deputy Minster
said it would be suicidal in the next decade for the population not to be
connected and that renders them an “endangered species.”
He said issues
bordering on data challenges needed to be addressed to reap the full dividend
to the digital drive.
Mr Odotei said once
government invested more in the infrastructure “we expect the population
to have more access and urged the actors such as the Electricity Company of
Ghana (ECG), Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC), the
NCA and other parties to harness their strengths the leverage on affordable
digital space.
Mr Prince Ofosu
Sefah, Deputy Dirrctor-General of NCA said the emerging technological landscape
in Africa was an opportunity to accelerate inclusive growth across the nation
and pledged that NCA would ensure it deployed more interventions to foster and
accelerate connectivity.
He said NCA issued
various licenses and authorisations to over 25 communication services and as
the technology developed, the Authority would provide licenses to new services
to help accelerate connectivity.
The NCA deployed
state-of-the-art robust ‘quality of service’ monitoring system to measure
quality of services rendered to consumers by service providers and ready to
crack the whip.
Madam Oliva
Makwakwa, A4AI Head of Africa Region said priority issues identified in Ghana
included; consumer awareness and pricing, infrastructure sharing and open
access, research and data collection and taxation.
Dr Kwasi
Ofosu-Adarkwa, A4AI-Ghana National Coordinator said Ghana’s first think policy
needed urgent review to move with the digital transformation.
“This should
help create the demand side initiatives to enable high uptake of broadband to
compensate for investments done by the private sector and the public sector.”
Mr Kwasi Adu-Gyan,
Dirrctor-General, Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE) said
government’s adoption of the ‘1 for 2’ affordability target (1GB of mobile
pre-paid data of two per cent or less of average monthly income) was apt, but
indicated more needed to be done to achieve that
GNA
