Digital Economy Policy submitted to Cabinet for approval – NITA

The Digital Economy Policy (DEP) to regulate the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector has been completed and submitted to Cabinet for approval, the Direc­tor of Technical Services of the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), Solomon Kofi Richardson, has said.

Mr Richardson, who disclosed this at the MTN Business Chief Technology Information Officer Roundtable Africa ‘23’ conference held in Accra on Tuesday, said the DEP, which would replace the ICT for Accelerated Development Policy, has become necessary in view of the growing and constant change in digital technology.

On the theme “Building Back Better, the role of CTIOs in a digital first world,” it was attended by information officers from both public and private institutions, including banks and information communication technology com­panies.

Speaking on the topic “Har­nessing digital transformation and emerging technology in the post-pandemic world,” Mr Richardson said a Framework on Emerging Technology (FOET) was also being developed.

He said the FOET would, among others, define how and when emerging technology should be rolled out.

Mr Richardson said the govern­ment was in talks with data and cloud investors to invest in the country, stressing that the move was to help reduce the cost of data and cloud services in the country.

Mr Richardson said the objec­tive of the government was to create an enabling environment for the digital technology companies to thrive.

The Chief Digital Officer of MTN Ghana, Dario Bianchi, said MTN Ghana was now a technol­ogy and not a telecommunication company.

“The vision is to transform the company into a platform for start-ups and companies to ride on to develop and build their business­es,” he said, adding that MTN was planning to phase out the Univer­sal Supplementary Service Data (USSD), which some customers use in accessing the services of the company.

That, he said, was to provide opportunity to customers to use the digital platforms the company had created.

USSD is a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol that is used to send text messages, and similar to Short Message Service (SMS).

The Head of Products and In­novations of Mobile Money Limit­ed, Sylvia Otuo-Acheampong, said mobile money had made it easy for people to have access to financial services.

She said mobile money was driv­ing financial inclusion and current­ly about 30 million customers were accessing mobile money services.

The Acting Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Daniel Asare, said maiden MTN CTIOs pro­gramme was to create a platform to dialogue with players in the technology and digital sector.