Accra, Aug. 29, GNA - Vice President Aliu Mahama on Friday asked Ghanaians, especially top level officials, to actively contribute to the formulation and implementation of a realistic Information Communications and Technology (ICT) policy to propel political and socio-economic growth.
"It is undeniable that the effective deployment and exploitation of ICT within our economy and society can accelerate our socio-economic development," he noted.
"However, for this to happen there ought to be a visionary drive and concerted efforts by all to address the critical success factors to this process."
The Vice President was speaking at a meeting at which the National Taskforce on ICT presented a comprehensive policy draft document to Ministers of State for their input at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence on ICT training.
"In examining the phenomenal growth in many of the emerging economies including Malaysia and the Philippines, the common feature that has emerged is that their economic success can largely be attributed to their application of ICTs to development," he noted.
"Through the deployment of ICTs, these countries have promoted e-applications in health, agriculture and commerce etc to boost their economic performance."
Experts say Ghana can leapfrog its socio-economic process by utilizing ICT to develop its natural resources.
The economic success of Botswana, which has 3,300 dollars per capita income, Malaysia, 3,400 dollars and Singapore, 24,740 dollars is attributed to their effective utilization of ICT. India and Ireland are also reaping the benefits of ICT.
According to the experts, Ghana can also benefit from the 27 billion dollars to be gained from the United States by outsourcing companies in India, the Philippines and Ireland in 2007, if she gets her ICT policy and backbone infrastructure right.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies engage in offshore data processing, assembling of computer plants and other services, such as being done by the Affiliated Computer Services, Rising Data and Supra Telecom.
Vice President Mahama, consequently, challenged the Ministries of Communications and Technology and Energy to work together to speedily facilitate the use of national fibre optic as the backbone for ICT infrastructure.
The cost of utilisation of fibre optic for ICT in Ghana is said to be relatively higher than in other countries.
Vice President Mahama asked Ministers of State to make budgetary allocations for ICT integration in their development programmes to enhance advancement, especially in the areas of education, entrepreneurial development, agriculture and health.
He commended the Taskforce, chaired by Professor Clement Dzidonu, for extensively consulting stakeholders with varied background in the drafting of the document and said the final outcome should be a living document that would be responsive to all aspects of society and changing needs.
The Vice President said the regulations and action plans that would be made from the documents should address the needs of privacy, security and legal protection of ICT users.
Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of Communications, said Ghana would be better off economically if it would reap about five per cent of the 27 billion dollars in BPO from the US.
"If Ghana gets five per cent of this, it will translate to about 1.4 billion dollars in revenue inflow," he said. "That is how attractive ICT can be."
Only one per cent of these offshore contracts would bring in 270 million dollars with 10.5 million dollars as taxes for the government and create 16,000 jobs.
Mr Kan-Dapaah said Ghana was determined to be part of the information society, with the vision provided by President John Agyekum Kufuor as demonstrated in his last Sessional Address to Parliament. He said the policy document, which focused on 14 priority areas, spelled out Ghana's present position in ITC, its intended destination, when it wanted to get there and what should be done to meet the targets. He said other ministries would be required to concretise their ICT policies and plans in line with the national document to give Ghana competitive edge to bridge the digital divide.
The UN Economic Commission for Africa is sponsoring the development of the policy as part of the UN's effort to make Africa participate actively in the information society to reduce poverty on the continent.
