Establish Ghana as regional digital hub —Minister
The Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Mrs Ursula Owusu Ekuful, has called for collaboration between stakeholders in both public and private sectors to establish Ghana as a regional digital hub to impact the economy and businesses.
Speaking at the National Stakeholder Consultation for the Review of the Ghana Digital Economy Policy in Accra on Wednesday, she said business efficiency in relation to service provision depended largely on digitisation, adding that efforts must be made by stakeholders to set the country in the position to utilise technology for economic growth.
“The digital economy cuts across all sectors and dimensions of our social and economic life. It is therefore important for stakeholders to come out with a digital policy that could improve on trade, support entrepreneurship and ultimately boost socio-economic growth,” she stated.
Mrs Ekuful said the country needed to harness emerging technologies, tools and platforms to deliver relevant and efficient services for economic growth.
“A collaborative regulatory environment must be developed to ensure that technology-related services that span multiple sectors receive the required coordinated oversight where multiple regulators are involved,” he stated.
Reviewing the draft policy she said, it must address the issue of how to increase the contribution of the digital economy to the growth of the national Gross Domestic Product(GDP), addressing priorities such as job creation and unlocking value in high-potential sectors while strengthening inclusion.
The policy she said, would seek to establish an open, secure, hyper-connected and inclusive digital economy that unleashes the innovative genius of digital entrepreneurs across various sectors, creating sustainable jobs for the youth, enabling efficient delivery of services and positioning Ghana as a regional digital hub.
“We are developing an ecosystem for all, both the private and public sector so if the enabling environment works, it enables them to do better than they were already doing. It also minimises their frustration, provide ease in doing business in the private sector and the country generally. It creates more innovative opportunities for the private sector to develop products for all sectors,” she stated.
“We are determined to use digital technology to formalise our economy to make the provision of services to citizens easier, more efficient, to improve transparency and reduce corruption,” she stressed.
On his part, Senior Advisor at the Office of the Vice President, Prof. Kwaku Appiah-Adu, said a well-designed national digital economy policy could serve as a framework for a digital economic revolution of developing countries.
The focus he said, should be on educating the vibrant young workforce on digital technology entrepreneurship and make provision to expose digital entrepreneurs to local, regional and global partners.
“To also safeguard the sovereignty and the economy of the country, the digital economic policy must develop a defensive system to protect, control and monitor the flow of data and information internally and externally,” he stated.
He urged all stakeholders to be creative and innovative and reimaging Ghana’s digital future towards a vibrant digital economy.
BY MICHAEL D. ABAYATEYE
