The minister for communications and Digitalisation, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful (MP) says plans are far advanced to develop the Ghanaian digital economy policy, an upgrade on the ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) policy that has been in operation since 2003.
The ICT4AD has become obsolete and was concluded long before innovations like digital financial services and other applications became commonplace.
These digital services being used today are largely telecommunications focused and it is imperative that a proper blueprint is provided for the digital development of the country.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful revealed this when she interacted with staff of the Ghana Indian Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (GI-KACE) as part of her tour of the agencies under the Ministry.
She reiterated the need for GI- KACE to be part of policy development. “As experts and thought leaders, I am waiting to receive policy proposals from you to lead and drive innovation in this space”.
The Minister challenged them to also make input into the digital innovations being rolled out by the government and cited Mobile Money Interoperability; National Digital property address system; Ghana dot gov services and payments platform and the national ID system.
These were all developed by Ghanaian innovators by government and form the underpinnings of our emerging digital economy. KACE should be part of this exclusive team.
She further disclosed that the Ministry is working with the World Bank and E-Transform projects to extend connectivity to all public sector institutions around the country for all to utilise the digital applications being implemented by government.
She expressed satisfaction with the work done by staff of GI-KACE over the past years.
Staff of GI-KACE could not hide their joy about the Minister’s satisfaction of their work so far. They promised the minister to work hard to exceed her expectations.