Govt to provide fibre optic to boost transmission for

communication - Aliu

Accra, March 3, GNA - Vice President Aliu Mahama, on Wednesday, said the Government would ensure the full utilization of fibre optic to make transmission by media and telecommunication companies more reliable and effective.

He said this when he opened the third International Conference on Information Technology and Economic Development, in Accra. "It is under the theme: "The Challenges of ICT Development: Policy, Strategies, Equity and Access."

Fibre optic has been identified as a more efficient, reliable and cheaper means for transmission to replace microwave and satellite. Vice President Mahama, therefore, called for public and private participation and investments to facilitate the extension of Voltacom's fibre optic to the Northern part of the country.

Voltacom has been formed as an independent company to manage the Volta River Authority's (VRA) unutilised fibre optic as a backbone for ICT infrastructure for other operators. VRA makes use of only 10 per cent of its resources. Ghana Telecom has initiated moves to access the resources.

Vice President Mahama stressed the need for Africa to use ICT as a catalyst to attain sustainable socio-economic growth and significant poverty reduction.

"Statistics released by the Economic Commission for Africa indicate that Africa accounts for only one per cent of the Global Internet Users," he noted.

"Implicitly, Africa has a long way to go as far as the deployment of ICT for poverty reduction is concerned."

Vice President Mahama, consequently, urged African Governments to provide an enabling framework of policies, regulations, governance and institutions to facilitate the development of ICT.

He also called for networking of public, private and civil society organizations in ICT, to achieve innovation, capacity building and the building of resources to fully integrate Africa in the Global Information Society.

He lauded the approval of Ghana's ICT policy by Parliament last week, saying it would focus on human resource development, promote learning, e-governance and other services that would push the growth of the private sector.

The Vice President challenged the Conference, being attended by ICT experts from Africa and America, to develop strategies aimed at using ICT as a catalyst for sustainable development and to reduce poverty. Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of Communications and Technology, said Ghana had accepted the potential of ICT, and would use it to achieve universal basic education, reduce child mortality, HIV/AIDS, Malaria and to create wealth.

He called for the building of partnerships within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to explore the benefits of ICT for the sub-region's growth.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said in addition to Voltacom's fibre optic, Ghana Telecom's Sat 3 Sub-Marine Cable (underground fibre), which links Ghana to the outside world would be utilised to make communications more efficient.