Ursula touts Ghana’s progress in digital transformation

The Minister for Communication and Digitalisation, Hon. Ursula Owusu has listed in plain words the government of Ghana’s efforts in equipping vulnerable citizens with digital literacy skills.

According to her, the universal service funds to boost broadband services in rural areas and narrow the digital divide, the Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project, building necessary digital infrastructure for rural connectivity, among many other measures have been initiated to bridge the digital gap and also contribute in connectivity and its use.

The Ablekuma West legislator made this known at the ongoing 8th edition of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) World Telecommunications Development Conference (WTDC), in Kigali, Rwanda which runs up to June 16. The conference is under the themed “Connecting the unconnected to achieve sustainable development.”

“Ghana as a Partner to ‘Connect Focus Area leader’ is the first Member State to pledge both policy and financial commitments. We have committed €155 million to supplement universal service funds to boost broadband services in rural areas and narrow the digital divide. As part of the project, 2016 cell sites are being built across the country to connect about 3million Ghanaians by 2023. A similar amount will be committed for the second phase once the current phase of the Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project is completed” Ursula told the panel.

“In addition to building this shared infrastructure for rural connectivity, Ghana has also pledged an open spectrum policy to facilitate the usage of any technology to connect more than 6,000 villages across the country, and 3 million Ghanaians will be connected by 2023. We have mandated and are implementing a national roaming policy for any user to access broadband and emergency call services in our rural, unserved and underserved communities regardless of their service provider.

“Furthermore, Ghana commits to enhancing digital skills to empower its citizens to develop and utilise digital solutions to address social and economic challenges” she added.

Training

She further made known the continuous training porgrammes initiated by the government for the youths in acquiring professional Information Technology Communication education to also contribute to the digital transformational agenda.

She said government has contributed millions of US dollars to train about 3,000 young people by the end of 2024 as well the Girls-in-ICT initiative which has raised the bar from 1000 to 5,000 girls annually in 5 regions, among several implementations.

“The Government of Ghana has committed 2.6 million United States Dollars to add two innovation centres and train 3,000 people by 2024. In addition, Ghana has an agreement with SMART Africa Alliance, working through the Smart Africa digital Academy, to train up to 22,000 persons by 2023.

“Ghana’s Universal Access and Service Fund Administration operates over 220 Community ICT Centres (CICs) across rural communities which are used for capacity building, skills training and business advisory services. Ghana collaborates with ITU and NORAD to train more than 14,000 individuals by 2023 utilising this network of CICs. One of the Trainers who benefited from this DTC training program, 26-year old Mr Lucas Binnah Koomson from rural Ghana, attended the Generation Connect Youth Summit last week to pitch at the Hackathon with his colleagues. The 220 CICs have the capacity to train 105,600 persons annually, and we seek collaboration with partners and financiers to deliver digital skills to at least 200,000 persons by 2024.”

About WTDC 2022

Under the auspices of ITU, the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies, WTDC brings together more than 2,000 members of the international community, including Heads of State, government ministers, national delegations from 153 countries, prominent leaders from the digital sector, high-level representatives of regional bodies including the African Union and European Union, and top officials from non-governmental bodies.

Between 6 and 16 June, they will strive to draw up a bold new roadmap for harnessing digital technologies to drive socio-economic development and re-energize progress towards the  Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the UN for 2030.

Ramping up global connectivity has gained greater urgency amid the COVID-19 pandemic of the past three years. While Internet use surged in 2020, reaching 4.9 billion​ users worldwide, some 2.9 billion people remain unconnected and in growing danger of being left behind.