GCNet leads campaign for effective data protection in Ghana

The Ghana Community Network Services, (GCNet) says it is committed to protecting the integrity of national revenue and business data in its custody so as to facilitate trade particularly at the ports and the nation as a whole.

Speaking at the side-lines of a national annual data security conference held in Accra, the I.T Security Manager of GCNet, Isaac Boye said the unavailability of a credible data will go a long way to affect trading in the country, hence, GCNet has put in place measures to ensure that data gathered is enhanced to improve trade.

“Talk of trade, somebody wants to clear his or her goods from the port we value the availability of the information that we are having, we value the integrity of the information that we are providing and it confidentiality because of that, when this service is not available for some few minutes or hours the impact is huge,” he said.

He continued that “someone cannot clear his goods, someone cannot register his company, someone cannot fetch certain report that he needs to do his job so we put ourselves in the mind of the customer which is the main beneficiary of the service we are offering.”

He said GCNet is committed to leading the campaign of data protection and as a result it compliant to the data protection act.

The data protection conference is an annual event organised by the Data Protection Commission to increase awareness and address issues affecting data controllers and processors in Ghana to enhance compliance of the Data Protection Act.

The Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said insufficient protection of data can create negative market effect by reducing consumer confidence.

“An overly stringent protection can also unduly restrict businesses with adverse economic consequences, the policy position of the Ministry is therefore to create a balance that facilitates the development and growth of ICTs in Ghana, ensuring that laws consider the global nature and scope of the application and foster compatibility with other frameworks is of utmost importance of both domestic and international transaction increasingly rely on ICT,” she said.

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Prof. Frimpong Boateng who represented the President of Ghana, urged organisations to build integrity and trust in the collection, holding and use of information through the data law.