Cabinet to approve Draft ICT Policy next week

Accra, Oct. 4, GNA - The draft National Information Communication Technology (ICT) Policy would be put before cabinet next week for approval. This follows a final consultative meeting of stakeholders held on Friday in Accra on the draft Policy to afford them the opportunity to receive comments and inputs before it was put before Cabinet and subsequently Parliament for consideration.

Speaking at the forum, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of Communication said the comprehensive nature of the document was designed to ensure that all major policy thrusts of the various sectors were taken into account to make it a multi-sectoral one. He, however, said, after the enactment of ICT law, the various Ministries and sectors would be required to concretise their ICT policies and plans in line with the broad national policy.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said this would enable the country focus on areas where it could pool resources to have competitive advantage to bridge the digital divide adding that some ministries have already started the process. He said the broad base consultation on the document provided the opportunity to evaluate the various inputs that were made vis-=E0-vis the targets set under the Global ICT guidelines. Mr Kan-Dapaah said the measure clearly showed that the final draft contains realistic ICT-led programmes that would propel Ghana towards the positive side of the divide.

The Minister cited Botswana, Malaysia, Singapore and Ireland as countries in the third world that took early lead into the "digital journey" and have managed to revive their economies thereby achieving high per capita income levels. He said if Ghana should get five per cent of the 27 billion dollars from the United States to outsourcing companies in India, Philippines and Ireland in 2007, the country would be translated to about 1.4 billion dollars in revenue inflow adding that, that was how attractive ICT could be in terms of wealth creation.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said government was aware of its responsibility to play a leading role in facilitating the initiation of a comprehensive, forward looking and sustainable national strategies and the provision of adequate telecom infrastructure and excellent telecom services which were essential pre-requisites for the exploration of ICT. The document, he said, would addressed Ghana's development process by contributing to the nation's key developmental challenges.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said: "Principal questions addressed by the policy are: Where we are as a nation, where we want to get to, when we want to get there and what we need to do in order to get there".

Professor Clement Dzidonu, Chairman of the Ghana ICT Committee, gave an overview of the draft policy and said it would have an operational life span of 15 years necessary for periodic revisions in relations to its key elements to meet challenging developmental objectives and priorities as well as changes in the global economy. He said Ghana had reached the stage where it had to boldly take a step towards establishing an ICT because the basic motivation was clear that the country's accelerated development would be impossible without an ICT-Led socio-economic development policy goal.

Dr Nii Narku Quaynoo, a Member of the United Nations ICT Task Force, commended Ghana for making the effort to make the process participatory enough and said the UN was committed to facilitate the process in ensuring that the right policies and guidelines were put in place for a smooth take off. He said the private sector's involvement could not be overemphasized since people in that domain would make the relevant comments and provide inputs to ensure a successful implementation of the policy.