Mrs Patricia Obo-Nai, the Chief Executive of Vodafone Ghana, has said big data deployment in the country would save the lives of many.

A statement copied to Ghana News Agency from Vodafone said, the global concept of using data from mobile networks to make life-saving decisions has become very critical, especially in a world that continues to be transformed by technology every day.

In view of this, it said, Vodafone Ghana, Vodafone Group Foundation, Ghana Statistical Service, and Flowminder, a non-profit organization, has come together to lead the way in using anonymised customer data to track trends in population movements.

“This is then analysed for purposes of decision-making for the health, agriculture and transportation sectors, among others,” the statement said. Vodafone, it said, saw the partnership as one that would support Ghana to use valuable metrics in making better analyses and predictions for the greater good of all.

The initiative is also expected to help the country to better measure the Sustainable Development Goal indicators.

According to the statement, Mrs Obo-Mai, speaking at a "Data for Now" forum as part of the 74th UN General Assembly in New York said: "The urgent need for accurate and timely data explains why Vodafone is currently leading the drive to use big data for social good in Ghana.”

“For the first time in the history of the country, a telecoms company is partnering government to use aggregated anonymised data to analyse population movements and other trends, and help to make life saving decisions during emergency response, health delivery, agriculture, transportation and many other metrics,” she said.

The statement said Mrs Obo-Nai was on the panel with Mats Granyrd, Chief Executive of GSMA and Dr Claire Melamed, Chief Executive Officer of Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.

The forum was hosted by stakeholders, including the World Bank group and the Government of Ghana.

Vodafone’s data for good programme is being led by Vodafone Group Foundation’s “Connecting for Good” initiative and is also receiving generous funding from some private foundations.