The Minister, Ghanaian delegation and some investors at the conference
The Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has appealed to foreign investors to focus on Ghana since the government is committed to providing critical infrastructure and enabling environment for them to help digitise the country’s economy.
She told participants at this year’s Telecom World Conference and Exhibition in Durban, South Africa that the Akufo-Addo administration is determined to assist startup entrepreneurs in ICT.
She disclosed this during the ‘Ghana Day’ at the conference, which was attended by investors, innovators and project and decision-makers in the ICT sector.
The Minister disclosed that the Communications Ministry was determined to fully harness the potentials of digitisation to benefit Ghanaians since the nation has an excellent chance of making the digital revolution succeed.
“And so just like President Ramaphosa said we are also keen on developing the Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics (STEM) for women,” she stated.
She added that the government also has an aggressive rural telephony programme to connect the entire country within five years.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said e-governance is very key to the digitization agenda of government, pointing out that all government services would be run on the digitisation platform in order to eschew inefficiency, lack of transparency and corrupt practices.
“We believe with technology we can be more efficient, bring governance close to the people, improve the lives of our people and leapfrog development,” she asserted.
The conference, which was held under the theme, “Innovation for a Smarter World,” sought to accelerate ICT innovation for socio-economic development through solutions, shared knowledge and networking with measures to develop and protect local intellectual property.
It was also to harness the power of technology to transform lives, ensure sustainable ICT growth in emerging and developed markets and foster innovation ecosystems.
The Ghanaian delegation, led by the Communications Minister, stole the show at the conference with their Kente and Fugu dresses and traditional displays.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi