Spio comments on ICT Investment and Ghana Election

SPIO-GARBRAH LAUDS GHANA FOR ELECTORAL CALM AND CITES IT AS HELPING TO PROMOTE INVESTMENT IN EMERGING AFRICAN ICT MARKETS

Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, the Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), ahead of a major CTO Conference in London this week, has cited the relatively calm and mature recent elections in Ghana as an example of the growing stability in Africa that justifies further foreign and domestic investment in ICTs in Africa, notwithstanding the global economic recession and cautionary attitudes amongst investors. The CEO CTO was making informal remarks prior to the official opening of the CTO’s conference on “Investing in ICTs in Emerging Markets” which is being held in London 11-12th December, at the Inmarsat headquarters. The CTO conference has attracted a number of ICT ministers from African and other Commonwealth countries, heads of regulatory institutions, as well as senior executives of ICT operating companies, equipment suppliers, financial institutions, law and accounting firms, and other ICT professionals and consultants.

In interactions with some media representatives prior to the conference, Dr Spio-Garbrah stated that although the global economic slow down was leading to understandable cut-backs in staff and investments by major ICT operators and equipment manufacturers in their home countries, such major global companies should not ignore the high returns on investment for their investment in developing countries. He remarked that the continued pent-up demand for ICT access, products and applications in most developing countries was such that irrespective of industrial country conditions, discerning investors could continue to make very good returns on their investments in the developing world. As former senior official of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) within the World Bank Group, and the African Development Bank Group, Dr Spio-Garbrah noted that in many African countries, Internet penetration was less than 5%, meaning there was as much as 30 percent of the population waiting for Internet services, and willing to pay for it. He also remarked that in spite of the fast growth in mobile access in recent years all over the emerging world, most African countries still had less than 25% penetration of telephony, which implied opportunities for more than a 100% increase in currently serviced customers. All these represented immense highly profitable investments for both domestic and foreign investors, said Dr Spio-Garbrah, who is a member of the Boards of Directors of Telkom South Africa and Vodacom.

The Commonwealth official, who was previously a Minister of Education and of Communication of Ghana, remarked that the recent relatively calm elections in Ghana demonstrated the increasing maturity of many African countries which should help assure investors of the safety of their investments in countries that maintained good governance practices. He praised the people of Ghana and the various political parties that contested the recent elections there for their patience exhibited through waiting in long lines to vote and their general tolerance of delays in announcing election results. He hoped that the Presidential run-off on 28th December which has been announced by the Electoral Commission will also be characterised by restrained behaviour and peaceful conduct. “In 2000, the NDC government, of which I was a part, set a great example for the people of Ghana and the African region by handing over peacefully to the NPP administration when we lost the elections of that year. It is my fervent prayer that the incumbent NPP administration will also become mentally ready to hand over to a new government in 2009 if they lose the run-off.

Pressed further by the journalists with whom he was interacting about the just ended campaign, Dr. Spio-Garbrah stated that Prof. Atta Mills of the NDC party chalked a number of quantifiable achievements during the recent Ghana elections despite falling short of the 50%-plus-one requirement for an outright win. They included the NDC’s and Atta-Mills success in capturing the majority of parliamentary seats and winning the Presidential vote in his native Central region of Ghana, unlike in the past two elections. Atta-Mills also increased his actual votes in most constituencies and in most regions over his performance in 2004, in sharp contrast with his NPP opponent who scored fewer votes per constituency and region than the current president of Ghana when the latter stood as that party’s Presidential candidate in the 2004 elections. Dr Spio-Garbrah remarked that this performance of Prof. Atta Mills was at a time of lower voter turn-out for the 2008 elections, which involved a reported nearly 8,625,785 (approximately 70% of registered voters) people casting their votes versus 8,465,834 voters, who represented some 84% of registered voters in 2004. Furthermore, Prof Mills increased his overall number of national votes from 44% of all votes cast in 2004 to nearly 48% in 2008. In response to another question, the former minister was of the opinion that a win for the NPP candidate could cause internal wrangling in his own administration since he was unable to secure more than 49% of his party’s delegates’ votes during the NPP’s Congress in December 2007 to select their Presidential candidate. He reminded the media that following the arranged victory of Nana Akufo-Addo at the NPP congress, his closest rival, Alan Kyeremanten, resigned from the NPP, citing acute difficulties and differences with the Presidential candidate. Under these circumstances, he felt that an NPP administration, working with a Parliament that is majority controlled by NDC, was likely to be quite unstable, leading to major economic and financial difficulties for Ghanaians and investors. On the other hand, Dr. Spio-Garbrah pointed out, the NDC Presidential candidate, Prof. Atta Mills, secured the support of some 80% of NDC delegates at the NDC Congress of December 2006, thereby assuring Ghanaians, the international community and potential investors of a more stable NDC administration.

Dr Spio-Garbrah agreed with those in Ghana who have called on the Electoral Commission and the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) to educate voters over the next two weeks to reduce the high number of 205,432 disqualified ballots, which represented some 2.4% of all votes cast. The former minister was of the view that had most of those rejected ballot papers been accepted, the 2.4% could have tilted the results of the elections, thereby saving the nation the enormous cost in resources, time and energy of another run-off election. Also, a larger turn-out of some of the more 30% of registered voters who did not vote on 7th December would help to make the results much clearer and give the new president a healthy mandate, Dr. Spio-Garbrah suggested.

To ensure a more efficient electoral process, Dr. Spio-Garbrah invited the two main political parties, the NDC and the NPP, to request the Electoral Commission to close the 28th December elections at 4.00pm instead of at 5.00pm, in view of the shorter time it would take for each voter to choose between just two Presidential candidates and also because there would be no voting for Parliamentarians which would reduce the total time each voter will take at the polling station. This, the former minister said, would enable the counting of votes to be concluded more expeditiously and the results announced possibly within 24 hours of the closure of the elections. Spio-Garbrah explained that unless the results of the 28th December elections were announced more promptly than was the case for the 7th December elections, the new President of Ghana will have little time to get his team organised to be sworn in and to assume power on 7th January 2009.

Commenting on the short period for handing over power in the Ghanaian electoral system, Dr. Spio-Garbrah, a former Ghanaian ambassador to the USA, noted that in the USA a new President has as much as 10 weeks after winning election on 4th November to assume power on 20th January the following year, making for a smooth transition from one government to another. However, in the Ghanaian case, a newly elected President, after the 28th December run-off, will have less than a full working week to prepare for governance if results are not announced early—especially given the New Year holiday period and festivities. Fortunately, according to Dr Spio-Garbrah, Prof. Mills, as a former Vice President of Ghana from 1997-2001, was already aware of what it takes to govern a nation and has his Transition Team on stand-by. He recalled that former President Jerry John Rawlings, remarkably exited from the residence of the Head of State at the Castle, Osu in Ghana on 4th January 2000, three clear days before the 7th January handing over of that year, partly to demonstrate to the in-coming Kufuor administration his readiness to ensure a peaceful handing over. Dr Spio-Garbrah hoped that President John Kufuor and his ministers were in a similarly cooperative state of mind and would follow the excellent example of former President Rawlings in their handing-over preparations if they lost the runoff.