The Minister for Communications and digitization, Ursula Owusu, has disclosed that an ongoing rural connectivity project will provide four million citizens voice and data telephony services.
Speaking at the launch of Ghana.gov, the electronic platform for the delivery of and payment for government goods and services,;she averred that the project will provide these services to people in the remotest parts of the country.
“We are also in the process of implementing rural connectivity project to link the unserved and underserved areas of the country within the next two years.
“Some 4 million citizens will be connected to voice and data telephony services in the remotest parts of our country. Smart investment in infrastructure will improve access to the latest technology resulting in greater availability of affordable and reliable broadband connectivity and broader adoption of digital technologies across the entire country. As we are determined to promote digital inclusion and leave no one behind.”
Ursula Owusu
Ursula Owusu speaking on digitization further indicated that Ghana must evolve quickly and respond to the transformation;brought by the internet and mobile technology.
“And since data has become the new oil,;we must integrate our systems to derive maximum benefits from machine learning,;block chain, internet offense, big data analytics and other novel technology.”
Ursula Owusu
Gov’t pursuing Digital Ghana Agenda
The Communications Minister,;Ursula Owusu also posited that he Ghana.gov initiative is part of the President’s effort at implementing his vision of a massive transformation through technology as the nation vigorously pursues the ‘Digital Ghana Agenda’ systematically.
“We are using technology to formalize our economy for growth and sustainable livelihoods;to modernize government processes and drive innovation, entrepreneurship, create jobs and transform businesses.”
Ursula Owusu
The communications minister said several attempts have been made to digitize key government services;through the e-transform project in partnership with the world bank. She said the e-gov project of e-transform,;led to the digitization of the then internal revenue service, the Registrar General’s Department, the establishment of the Ghana electronic payment platform among others.
Digital initiatives sustainability, a challenge
However, the sustainability of these initiatives Ursula Owusu revealed became a challenge due to operational and maintenance cost not being factored into project design. Additionally, the usage of proprietary software, meant government could not access and utilize our own data generated by these projects.
“We had actually begun the procurement process for upgrading the Ghana electronic payment platform when we were introduced to what has now become Ghana.gov. We decided to trust our local fintech consortium against stiff opposition, both internal and external. We’ve come a long way in two years.”
Ursula Owusu
Also, she said the Akufo-Addo administration has over the past years provided key infrastructure to support the rapid digitization through projects such as National ID cards, the Ghana post digital address, mobile money interoperability and the Ghana interbank payment and settlement platform.
“The digitization of the economy through the implementation of these few initiatives is already yielding fruits. The extensive mobile coverage in the country has generated a quantum lead in the use of mobile money transactions.”
Ursula Owusu
She further indicated that online services, telemedicine among others are becoming the new normal. She said the government will ensure the promotions of various technologies to make the technology agenda succeed.
Additionally, she indicated that government wants to grow the software industry in Ghana to be able to develop home grown digital solutions by Ghanaians for Ghanaians.
