´ICT policy reforms necessary for robust economic growth´

Dr Kwasi Darkwa, the President of Ghana Technology University College (GTUC), has called on policymakers to launch an aggressive intervention into the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) industry to stimulate economic growth and boost job creation.

‘Information’ has become “a strategic resource, a commodity and a foundation of every activity”, he said.

He said it is rated as a vital utility alongside water and electricity that demanded political commitment and the will to review ICT infrastructure, applications and policies.

Dr Darkwa made the call at the first African conference of the International Telecommunications Society organised jointly with the GTUC and the Center for Communications, Media and Information Technologies, Denmark.

The conference which featured hundreds of government officials, educators, businessmen and researchers, was on the theme: “ICT infrastructures, applications and policies.”

The global economy, experts stress, was undergoing rapid ICT revolution and drastically transforming lives of people around education, healthcare, governance, politics, banking and entertainment, but regrettably Ghana and Africa trailed.

Africa is said to have the lowest internet penetration rate and the highest internet prices in the world and relies on satellites and very small aperture terminal earth stations for most of its connectivity.

“This results in high prices and the applications are slow compared to other technologies,” Dr Darkwa said.

“This calls for a commitment on the part of political leaders to address the technological imbalance,” he said adding that quicker action is needed to transform institutions and eradicate poverty.

“Africa continues to be poor and suffers from all the social, economic, and political pathologies that so often accompany poverty, clearly, the escape from poverty will require transformation of all our basic institutions.”

“And all of these transformations of our ways of working and governing and thinking will not happen without the employment of ICT,” he said.

“Today, we speak of a knowledge economy, a digital economy, knowledge workers, and knowledge societies; participation in a knowledge society in the era of the information economy is based on connectivity to modern ICTs,” he stressed.

He said the backbone of a knowledge society was based on “a well-developed, well maintained and affordable information infrastructure that allows access to, and manipulation of the dematerialised economy.”

He cited China, India, the Philippines and Estonia as leaders in the sector which have become significantly richer and progressed to a new level of economic success because they have transformed their dominant institutions through the use of ICT, innovation and encouraged collaboration, research and development.

The information revolution is driven by the convergence of technological infrastructure – computers, satellites, wireless networks, and fiber optic technologies.

He said adequate ICT infrastructure to support the expansion and high level connectivity was needed for the rapid deployment of ICT applications and services.

“Without adequate ICT infrastructure to move information rapidly, Africa’s development will be further marginalised,” he said.

Dr Darkwa, however, said the decision to develop the technological infrastructure needed for accelerated development and ICT policy implementation was primarily a political one.

“There is the need for government and other stakeholders to help shape national policies in this direction, if authorities in key decision making positions fail to act, it will be overly optimistic to expect far-reaching progress,” he said.

“Without an aggressive intervention of this nature, very little progress will be made in our quest towards the technological promise land, and history will judge us harshly if we fail to move in this direction.