Mrs Owusu-Ekufful (left) interacting with a participant
African governments must initiate strategies to harness the growing potentials and value of Information Communication Technology to develop their economies, Minister of Communications, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekufful has said.
According to her, ICT was estimated that ICT would contribute about $300 billion to Africa’s Gross Domestic Product by 2025 through applications being developed on the continent and this presented a huge opening for Africa to create jobs and enhance her socio-economic development.
Mrs Owusu-Ekufful made the call in Accra yesterday at the opening of the International Regional Development Forum for Africa under the theme, ‘ICT4SDGs: Towards the implementation of WTD17 outcomes.’
The two-day programme being organised by the government in partnership with ITU Africa Regional Office is being attended by representatives of the academia, private sector and state institutions from all over Africa.
Opening the conference, Mrs Owusu-Ekufful, said the disruptive power of ICT was influencing the global community and how business was conducted and said Africa must position itself: ‘Maximise the ICT revolution.’
The minister said the youthful and growing population of Africa presented her with opportunity to catalyse on ICT to create jobs and raise financial resources to accelerate the growth of the continent.
She called on the delegates to come out with strategies to address the growing digital divide and ensure that the women and people with disabilities were empowered to explore ICT to improve their lives.
Turning her attention on Ghana, Mrs Owusu-Ekufful said the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo was committed on leveraging on ICT to develop the economy.
Consequently, he said the government was investing heavily on broadband infrastructure to bring internet to the doorstep of the citizenry.
“The government has developed a paperless port programme and is implementing the National Property Addressing System and has begun the National Identification System,” she said.
The Director of Telecommunication Development Bureau of ITU, Brahima Sanou said the purpose of the forum was to present the proposed implementation of the Buenos Aires Action Plan with particular emphasis on some regional initiatives which had been developed by Africa.
The Regional Initiative, he mentioned were building digital economies and fostering innovation in Africa, promoting broadband technologies, building trust and security in the use of ICT, strengthening human and institutional capacity and management and monitoring of the radio frequency spectrum and transition to digital broadcasting.
The Director General of National Communications Authority (NCA), Joe Anokye in his remarks said the theme of the programme was very important as it emphasised on the need to use ICT to accelerate the sustainable development goals.
He said the forum would provide an avenue for sharing of experience and best practices in ICT among the ITU member countries and share the outcomes of the World Telecommunication Union conference held in October last year in Buenos Aires.
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