The Chief Executive Officer of the Broadband Communications Chamber (BBCC), Elorm Gustav Tamakloe has asserted that Ghana’s current Broadband Policy has failed to live up to expectation.
He made this assertion at a press conference held by the BBCC at the Ellking Hotel in East Legon on Monday, November 13, 2017.
According to Mr. Tamakloe, the policy has failed to make any progressive impact in the country’s ‘socio-economic future’.
“The Chamber believes that Ghana’s current 2012 Broadband Policy and Implementation Strategy has lost the fundamentals in turbo-charging our socio-economic future. It has lost the ability to meet the national Broadband need and has not been able to deliver fast and affordable Broadband to Ghana,” he stated.
Referring to a 2016 report by the United Nations Broadband Commission, the CEO of BBCC explained that the deployment of Broadband infrastructure should be a top priority to policymakers so as to quicken the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“Last year, the UN Broadband Commission in a report issued a challenge to policymakers, the private sector and other partners to make deployment of Broadband infrastructure a top priority in their strategies to accelerate global development and progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals,” he said.
He said the report revealed that Broadband technologies in the 21st century were ‘driving significant transformation in lots of sectors that are related to development such as health, food security, financial inclusion and education’.
Mr. Tamakloe also expressed disappointment in Ghana’s inability to utilize the Broadband opportunity as a stimulant for socio-economic development.
“Sadly, Ghana is losing out. Ghana is being left behind. With approximately 9.9 million users, representing 34.7% of about 29 million population, we can either choose to continue to do nothing or we can seize the Broadband opportunity as a catalyst for Ghana’s sustainable socio-economic development,” he added.
