Ursula Owusu-Ekuful
Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has announced that government intends to use Information Communication Technology (ICT) to revamp the Ghana Post Company Limited.
She made the disclosure on Thursday, December 13, 2018 in Accra during the Meet-the-Press Series organized by Information Ministry.
According to her, negotiations were ongoing to secure a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement for the modernization of Ghana Post.
The minister indicated that “ICT has taken up a lot of the core functions of postal and courier services that have left people wondering whether post offices have any use within the current global setting.”
She added that “we, however, believe that with the introduction of new business modules, ICT can be used as a tool to revamp the postal and courier services.”
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful revealed that “the Ministry of Communications, in collaboration with Ghana Post, launched the National Digital Property Addressing System (NDPAS).”
“The objective of the system is to generate digital addresses for individuals and commercial properties and also provide navigation capabilities that help with ease of finding locations.”
The minister added that “the system has attained some milestone. There are 1,200,000 registered and verified addresses.”
Projects
The minister also spoke about efforts being made by government to holistically the ICT infrastructure of Ghana, saying the Ministry shall promote technology to achieve President Akufo-Addo’s ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ vision.
Already, she indicated that 400 rural telephony sites had been constructed under this project this year to provide voice and data connectivity.
She explained that “this has provided coverage for 2,000 communities with a population of 900,000. “We intend to scale this up to cover all unserved and underserved communities by 2020.”
By Melvin Tarlue