Ghana says will drive development with usage of ICT

Dr Edward Omani Boamah, the Minister of Communications, has said the government would make ICT one of the key drivers of national development and that the diffusion and transfer of technology would take centre stage in the national development agenda.

He said in this regard, the government is pursuing the rapid development of the national ICT infrastructure as a pre-requisite for the attainment of sustainable growth and development.

Dr Boamah was speaking at the opening of a sensitization and awareness workshop for Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) on the e-Government platform Project Phase II under the theme “Improving Government Employees Productivity and Services through Innovative Technologies and Optimised Process Management’ on Thursday in Accra.

The workshop was organized by the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Communication and supported by Microsoft, Huawei, IPMC and EMC.

He said the workshop was a welcome forum to inform, not only the leadership of the MDAs about the unfolding opportunities for efficiency in government service delivery, but also to acquaint the people of Ghana with the participatory opportunity in governance that will be provided by the e-Government Platform project.

Dr Boamah said it was the government’s objective to ensure that improved network connectivity provided better access to health care and health information, opportunities for education and training, transportation, protection of environment and management of natural resources, and also create transparency in government.

He said the government is implementing the Phase II of the  e-Government Platform Project to allow the deployment of Applications that contribute to the development of the Ghana e-Government Portal and provide office automation applications and e-services for the various government departments on the platform, for instance;  e-Health, e-Cabinet, e-Justice, e-ID, e-Transport, and e-Tourism.

Dr Boamah said Ghana’s fortune is that the required infrastructure network is being delivered as a turn-key project under cooperation agreement between the Government of Ghana and the Government of the Peoples Republic of China, who is providing $127 million.

He acknowledged the contribution of the Government of China to the commitment and development of broadband in Ghana which is permitting the country to deploy several Applications in all sectors of our national economy.

Dr Boamah also implore on all stakeholders to endeavour to adopt new attitudes expressive of their commitment to apply technology in the delivery of Government services to the citizens.

Dr Boamah said the Ministry of Communication in collaboration with the Ministry of Health is to implement a pilot e-Health Project at Korle-Bu (as a Teaching Hospital,) Wa (as a Regional Hospital), and Zebila (as a patient-end and District Hospital).

Dr Tonny Aidoo, Director of Project Monitoring and Evaluation at the Presidency, said the project would also approve standard, applications and programmes to improve the work of government to ensure higher productivity and the responsibility of ensuring that there is efficiency and security in the ICT sector in Ghana

Dr Aidoo said the project would also monitor all IT projects, programmes and processes implemented nationwide to meet the aims, principles and strategies for the delivery of ICT and provide quality ICT in Ghana.

Source: GNA