GIFEC will continue to adopt more public-private partnerships to achieve meaningful connectivity – Prince Sefah

Mr. Prince Ofosu Sefah, Administrator (CEO) of Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), has emphasised the need to enhance collaboration with Stakeholders and adopt more Public-Private Partnerships to address challenges hampering meaningful connectivity in Rural Ghana.

He said this, during his recent presentation to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Study Group 1 Meeting, on the topic “Meaningful Connectivity: Projects and Impact”, with the objective of looking into ITU-led projects geared towards achieving Meaningful Connectivity, with country-level impact.

His presentation, titled “Digital Transformation Centres for Digital Skills to attain Meaningful Connectivity”, focused on interventions by GIFEC to ensure Meaningful Connectivity in Ghana.

He said that for GIFEC, addressing Meaningful Connectivity has meant “ensuring that everyone, everywhere has access to affordable and reliable connectivity of sufficient quality, that enables them to fully participate in the digital economy and society.”

He threw light on GIFEC’s ICT Capacity Building Programme, which is designed to provide requisite digital skills to Ghanaians, especially those in marginalised communities, to maximise the use of ICT equipment and services, thereby ensuring inclusion for all persons.

Specifically, he delved into the impact and potential of the Digital Transformation Centers (DTC) Project, which GIFEC is implementing in partnership with the ITU and Cisco, with funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Corporation (NORAD) and GIFEC itself, with the purpose of narrowing the Digital Skills Divide. The project, has since its inception in 2021, trained 14,500 citizens, about 70% of whom are female.

Mr. Sefah also touched on other programmes GIFEC is employing to achieve Meaningful Connectivity in Ghana, such as the Rural Connectivity Programme, which seeks to provide telephony network and internet connectivity to Underserved and Unserved communities. He added that GIFEC is leading the implementation of Government’s biggest investment in connectivity, through the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project (GRT&DIP), which aims to connect 2,016 communities in about three (3) years.

GIFEC has also established 281 Community ICT Centres (CICs) across the country, to improve access to ICT equipment in Underserved and Unserved Communities.

Mr. Sefah finally called on Stakeholders in the ICT ecosystem to partner with GIFEC, to ensure that more communities in Ghana have access to Meaningful Connectivity.

Although there were presentations from two other countries on related subjects to the Study Group Meeting, it was interesting to note that majority of the questions and contributions from participants focused on GIFEC’s programmes.