Ghana is making strides in digital technology – Minister
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications and Digitization, says the government has rolled out several e-government services, including e-justice, e-procurement, and e-registrar, to automate business registration processes.
On universal access, she said the “smart community project” was designed to provide affordable or free WiFi internet services to unserved and underserved communities across the country.
The Minister said this on Wednesday at the Annual New Year School and Conference in Accra, organised by the School of Continuing and Distance Education, University of Ghana.
The Conference is on the theme: “Nurturing Resilience: Adopting Technology and Enhancing Humanism for Sustainable Development”.
She said the rural telephony project was being implemented to extend coverage of mobile telephone and data services to all areas of the country.
“The government has institutionalised the girls-in-ICT initiative, expanded it, and included mentorship sessions where accomplished female ICT professionals interact with and encourage the girls to take up courses in ICT,” she said.
She said the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications had provided ICT laboratories and network connectivity to hundreds of second-cycle schools.
The Minister said over 200 fully equipped community information centres had been constructed across all the Districts and Municipal Assemblies.
“We instituted the national identification programme and the National Digital Property System to serve as a national digital information hub,” she said.
Ghana.gov, a digital services and revenue collection platform, she said, served as a single point of access to government’s services for the public sector.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said the country established a state-of-the-art mini-tech hub, the Accra Digital Centre, which housed over 40 tech companies to drive digital innovation in the country.
She said that, under the partnership with the Smart Africa Digital Academy, would train 20 persons in artificial intelligence and 20 for cybersecurity to build their capacities in government and academia to promote resilience in the digital space.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said the government was committed to fostering an enabling environment for digital growth and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.
“By embracing technology, Ghana will continue to strengthen its educational systems, healthcare services, businesses, and cultures while empowering citizens to face the future with confidence,” she said.
Source: GNA