ICT to leapfrog Africa - Dapaah

Accra, July 8, GNA - Mr Albert Kan Dapaah, Minister of Communications, on Thursday launched a maiden International Mobile Phone and Accessories Exhibition and Technicians Conference to be held in Accra that would create a platform for local engineers and experts to develop their capacities.

The event, to span from August 11 to August 15, is expected to attract over 50 exhibitors and 100 local and foreign participants from Africa and other parts of the world under the theme: "Converging Mobile Phone Technology for Socio-Economic Development in Africa".

Mr Dapaah said the evolution of Information Communication Technology (ICT) provided Africa an opportunity to leapfrog the chasm that had developed between the Continent and rest of the world. He said the exhibition cum conference should alert Africa on the need to effectively survive and operate in today's Global Village. Government, the Minister said, was committed to putting in place the needed policy measures to facilitate the utilisation of all the opportunities that abounded in the knowledge and application of ICT for socio-economic development.

Mr Dapaah announced that the Government was developing a new telecom policy that would open up new technologies leading to quality service, expansion of networks to meet the aspiration of customers. He referred to the Geneva Conference on Information held last year, which purported that all villages over world should get connected to the Internet by 2015.

This demands the creation of a world information society. Mr Dapaah said mobile communication, provided a key to making communication accessible to rural communities possible.

Nana Kobbina Essuman, Project Director of the Event, said the conferences would provide an update of information on technological advancement in the communication industry as well as delineating the role of private business in the promotion of and development of effective and efficient telecommunication network.