Korea to assist Ghana in deployment of national public key infrastructure

Ghana’s Ministry of Communications and the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) of the Republic of Korea for technical assistance in the deployment of the national public key infrastructure (PKI).

The MOU, which was signed on October 19 during the 2012 Global e-Government Forum held in Seoul, is designed to facilitate the collaboration between the Ministry and NIPA in order to Design, Develop and Implement Certified Communications System (based on PKI) for the Government of Ghana.

Under the agreement, NIPA will provide ICT Professionals with technical expertise to execute feasibility study, dispatch ICT specialists to Ghana for benchmarking and participation in seminars and other events.

PKI is a set of hardware, software, people, policies, and procedures needed to create, manage, distribute, use, store, and revoke digital certificates. Once established, PKI would help the government make intra-government communication very secure. The infrastructure would also allow businesses and individuals implement certified communication using Certificate Authorities (CA).

In Ghana, the implementation of PKI which will require accreditation of Certificate Authorities who will issue digital certificates to institutions and individuals for use to ensure secure communication has been enshrined in the Electronic Transactions Act (ETA).

A government to government committee will be established between the Ministry of Communications, Ghana and NIPA Korea to work on achieving the goals of the MOU.

The Chief Director of MOC Ghana, Mr. Ofosu–Adarkwa, signed for Ghana while the Soo-Young Park of NIPA signed for the Republic Korea and witnessed by Mr. William Tevie, Director General of NITA, Ghana.

Source: GNA