Ghana Post GPS: Don't behave like the proverbial crab - Ursula Owusu to critics

Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has urged critics to stop behaving like the “proverbial crab” and support the new digital address system app as it is a simple user-friendly application.

According to her, not every Ghanaian is a technology agnostic and tech-savvy, therefore, government did not want any complicated application which would be difficult to be used by the general public.

“We didn’t want a very complicated application which will put them off and make it difficult for them to use, so it is designed to be a simple to use application,” she stressed.

Background

President Nana Akufo-Addo about two weeks ago launched the National Digital Property Addressing System, also known as the Ghana Post GPS in Accra, aimed at providing an effective means of addressing every location and place in the country, using an information technology application.

The app, which is said to have cost the country $2.5 million has been criticized by some experts in the technology space as well as some civil society organizations.

Whilst some of the critics describe the app as an amateurish and not a new thing, others question the security implications of the data received by the system.

The President of IMANI Ghana Franklin Cudjoe have been quoted in some sections of the media saying, “I’ve read quite a number of reviews by industry watchers, and some of the comments they’ve made are not necessarily helpful – to think that you could input just any data and generate an address in itself sounds amateurish. There are basic web portals where you input any kind of data it could reject it, especially when you are filling forms. And to hear that obviously, that it is something with this app is quite troubling”.

But the Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West Constituency who is also the sector minister at a press conference Friday October 27, 2017, said people are unnecessarily judging the strength of the Ghana Post GPS as its weakness because the app was specifically designed to be simple and safe for users.

“I have no doubts there are several GPS based navigation systems out there; we all choose which one we want to use. I also have no doubts that there are several cars, clothing brands, devices and all that out there but we decide which one to use. Can we say they are all copies of the first one which came out?” she questioned.

According to the Minister, people are criticising the app just because their preferred developer or company did not win the contract cautioning them to desist from doing so because if the system works it will be beneficial to all Ghanaians.