The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has honored Kwame Baah-Acheamfuor, a Ghanaian Telecommunication Expert who served as the Chairman of the ITU Study Group 12 (SG-12) for ten years.
Kwame, whose intended eight-year run became ten years due to COVID-19 is credited for leading the formation of standards for quality of service (QoS), quality of experience (QoE) and best standard performance globally during his tenure.
To this end, he was presented with a certificate of honor on his exit recently. The ITU also commended him for his achievements in terms of creating other regulatory and strategic industry standards.
In his exit speech at an event in Geneva, Switzerland last Wednesday, Kwame noted that during his tenure, Study Group 12, which used to be mainly a developed countries’ affair, received a strong representation from the developing countries, leading to an average of 45 countries attending every meeting.
“Our most recent meeting had 94 countries present and that is testimony to the wide representation we created on Study Group 12. We also have some very key representations of experts from a wide range of industries who contributed to creating very relevant standards,” he said.
Kwame explained that the key standards developed have helped countries to measure quality of service under very challenging circumstances, including protecting lives. For instance, standards produced by SG-12 have enabled an island country like Vanuatu, located in the South Pacific Ocean to measure quality of service across waters and land, and also the in-car communication standards that allows drivers to communicate effectively without losing concentration behind the steering.
“The in-car communication standards were particularly important because the records would show that road accidents kill more people than COVID-19 does, so it is important to maintain standards that will ensure that drivers can keep their eyes on the road while communicating in their cars effectively,” he said.
Kwame Baah-Acheamfuor mentioned that the internet quality, video quality, speech quality and others that the world enjoyed, particularly during the COVID-19 lockdown period, were all based on standards created by SG-12.
Kwame used the occasion to call on industry players and regulators to make inputs to the proposals put forward by SG-12 to ensure proper standards in that fast-growing digital finance space.
He thanked all the countries that sent delegates to SG-12, and to all the individual experts and organizations who contributed to the many relevant standards SG-12 put out under his leadership.
As testimony to ensuring an all-inclusive group, Kwame will be succeeded by a Mexican female member of the group, who happens to be the first female to assume that office, and also from a developing country.
From Fred Duodu, (k.duodu@yahoo.com)