'Accurate and timely data will save lives in Ghana' - Vodafone CEO

Chief Executive of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai says big data deployment in Ghana will save the lives of many in the West African country.

The global concept of using data from mobile networks to make life-saving decisions has become very critical, especially in a world that continues to be transformed by technology every day.

In view of this, Vodafone Ghana, Vodafone Group Foundation, Ghana Statistical Service, and Flowminder – a non-profit organisation – have come together to lead the way in using anonymised customer data to track trends in population movements. This is then analysed for purposes of decision-making for the health, agriculture and transportation sectors, among others.

Vodafone sees this partnership as one that will support Ghana to use valuable metrics in making better analyses and predictions for the greater good of all. The initiative is also expected to help the country to better measure the Sustainable Development Goal indicators.

Speaking at a "Data for Now" forum as part of the 74th UN General Assembly, Patricia said:

"The urgent need for accurate and timely data explains why Vodafone is currently leading the drive to use big data for social good in Ghana. For the first time in the history of the country, a telecoms company is partnering government to use aggregated anonymised data to analyse population movements and other trends, and help make live saving decisions during emergency response, health delivery, agriculture, transportation and many other metrics”.

Patricia was on the panel with Mats Granyrd, Chief Executive of GSMA and Dr. Claire Melamed, CEO of Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. The forum was hosted by a host of stakeholders including the World Bank group and the Government of Ghana.

Vodafone’s data for good programme is being led by Vodafone Group Foundation’s Connecting for Good initiative and is also receiving generous funding from some private foundations.