Ghana in the midst of an ICT era

Despite Ghana’s pioneering role in Internet usage and Information Communication Technology (ICT) resources on the African continent, the county’s prospects from the sector are still more on paper than on the ground


NOT quite long, the usage of the Internet and other ICT infrastructure such as mobile phones, computers and the likes were seen as a preserve of the privileged few in society. It was seen as a plus to the basic necessities of life, such that the folk in the village saw little connection between a mobile phone, computer and Internet services to his/her daily jostlings for a living.


As a result, nobody cared to invest in ICT infrastructure and policies that will help widen Internet or mobile phone coverage to areas off the cities and towns, where usage of these things were fast gaining momentum.

Such perceptions and actions are, however, changing for the better; thanks to globalisation and the emergence of an ICT era which has linked individuals’ basic needs to luxurious assets world-wide.

The emergence and widespread patronage f ICT has made it possible for many people to communicate easily, access basic health, educational, and life changing information.

Its usage has lessen people’s over dependence on human resources, freed more hands for extra jobs, widen people’s access to quality information and aided many businesses to grow at enviable rates.

Unlike before, most farmers and manufacturers in the villages are spared the hustles of having to cart their produce to markets in search for buyers. With access to a mobile phone or a switch of a button, a farmer can now connect with buyers, find prices for his produce or even find treatment for the unfamiliar disease that had attacked the crops or animals.

All these go a long way to fast track the overall transformation of the national economy for the overall good of the populace

Yet not much is done to enable the country reap fully from this emerging resource.

Despite the much thwarted prospects of ICT resources and broadband (the system on which highest Internet services work) to the development of the national economy, only a little over ten per cent broadband penetration has so far been achieved as against the about 30 per cent Internet usage recorded in Kenya. That of Nigeria, Tanzania, Libya and most of the country’s peers in the African continent are enviable higher. And that is a shame to stakeholders in the country’s ICT sector, especially given the fact that Ghana is said to be one of the country’s in the continent to have pioneered Internet usage.

While addressing the national ICT Policy Review Forum in Accra mid last year, Dr Nii Narku Quaynor, Chairman of the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) said the country’s Internet penetration on the African continent “is no longer competitive, ” conclusion he said was anchored by an earlier report released by the UN Secretary General's Multi Stakeholder Advisory Group on Internet Governance Forum (UN IGF MAG) on Internet usage in Africa.

Dr Quaynor explained that the country lost the competitive urge because of past policies which he said had succeeded in dragging the attention of the various stakeholders from the Internet or broadband infrastructure in general to the telecommunication industry. That, he added led to the closure of many Internet Service Providers in the country as telecommunication services picked up.

Discussants and panellists at last week’s Third GRAPHIC BUSINESS Forum in Accra held similar views. While admitting that the Internet usage or broadband penetration and economic development go hand in hand, some of the panellists said the country had failed to realise its goals from the Internet, a situation they said could pull development backward.

According to the Head of Vodafone Business Solutions, Mr Derek Appiah the world is on its “way to an ICT era where broadband penetration, data access and Internet usage will determine the pace at which a country will develop.”

That notwithstanding, Mr Appiah said Ghana was yet to catch-up with the speed at which an ICT powered economy develops.

For the guest speaker, Vice President John Dramani Mahama, “ICT affects every sector and industry of the economy.”

As a result, Mr Mahama called on the youth to take-up ICT courses that relate to their profession rather than learning Microsoft Word and the likes which will add less to your profession and life. “Use ICT as a plus to job,” he advised.

In all, one thing stood up key; the need for the country to integrate ICT into the newly found oil and gas industry so as to reap fully from the sector.

It thus requires the Ministry of Communication to totally review the nation’s ICT Policy to capture the strategies the country will adopt to integrate ICT into the sector without side-stepping the much talked about Local Content Policy.

Anything short of that will mean the oil and gas sector of the econonomy will equally ride the path on which the agriculture, industry and services sectors rode.