Ursula: African leaders must collaborate to ensure continent’s digital prosperity

Ghana’s Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, is calling for heightened collaboration among African leaders to enable digital prosperity through the bridging of the continent’s yawning digital divide.

This, she said, will lead to the provision of robust connectivity solutions on the continent, which will be vital to the promotion of economic growth through coordinated economic and social development.

She gave the assurance during a ministerial caucus session with other ministers from Central and West Africa at the 2023 Ministerial Alliance for Digital Nations in London, United Kingdom, on Tuesday, 21 February 2023.

Speaking on the topic ‘Cellular solutions for nationwide connectivity’, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said Africa with its demographic dividends presents an opportunity to the rest of the world and for that to be realised the government of Ghana has commenced the building of fibre networks “to our borders to facilitate easy connections to our neighbouring counties, while also championing a ‘roam like at home’ initiative within the ECOWAS region to link up with the rest of the continent.”

According to her, the Ghanaian government believes in “growing with our neighbours as we focus on making Ghana the digital hub of our region, knowing it is possible together.”

She said the government has also begun implementing a Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion programme to provide voice and internet services to an estimated 3.4 million population residing in unserved and underserved communities across Ghana—a move the minister believes will deepen digital inclusion in the country.

The 2023 Ministerial Alliance for Digital Nations is being organised by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation.

It is to facilitate collaboration between its member governments and the information and communication technologies (ICT) industry for addressing ICT issues for Commonwealth transformation.

This inaugural Ministerial Alliance will consider affordable universal broadband access as being essential for digital transformation, where Commonwealth ministers will share their challenges in achieving affordable universal broadband access and ICT industry representatives will respond to the Minister’s concerns, explain their technology and present appropriate ICT solutions.

The Ministerial Alliance will also present emerging technologies and their implications for policy, legislation, and regulations.