THE GHANA ‘ICT FOR ACCELERATED

DEVELOPMENT’ ( ICTfDev ) PROCESS

Developing the Ghana Integrated ICT-led Socio-

Economic Development Policy and Plan

Press Conference to Launch the National ICT

Policy and Plan Development Committee

STATEMENT BY THE HONOURABLE OWUSU-ADJAPONG, MINISTER OF

COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY
ON THURSDAY 22ND AUGUST 2002
Government of Ghana Economic Commission for Africa
Honourable Ministers of State,

Distinguished Members of the Media,

Invited Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I wish to warmly welcome you to this morning’s press briefing that is

basically to acquaint you with progress of work being undertaken to develop
the national ICT Policy and Plan for the country.

You would recall that in March last year I had the occasion to launch the
process for formulating the national ICT policy which culminated in the
national stakeholder discussion at GIMPA, Greenhill in September.
Valuable submissions were collated from this forum, which now constitutes
the Framework document presented to the Ministry for finalization and
submission to Government.

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, the 22nd Meeting of the

Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Conference of Ministers in 1996
adopted the African Information Society Initiative as a framework for a
radical socio-economic transformation through deployment and exploitation
of ICTs in the context of globalization and the information age.

Furthermore, H.E. President John Agyekum Kufuor has made it abundantly

clear that in this Information Age, Ghana would not be left behind and
therefore every effort should be made to develop ICTs for the country. The
challenge therefore facing us relates more to the formulation and
implementation of appropriate ICT-led socio-economic development
policies and plans that could aid the process of moving the economy and
society to the other side of the digital divide.

The first Africa Development Forum (ADF) organized by ECA in 1999

based on the theme “Challenges of Globalization and the Information Age”

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examined and proposed a number of actions to be taken at the national and
continental levels. Fortunately for us, this ‘What-to-do’ framework has,
since adoption, been operationalized, field-tested and refined.

As a result, the Government has identified five critically interrelated areas

for strategic intervention, which include:

• Infrastructure – deploying a core ICT network infrastructure,

achieving relative ubiquity of access, and investing in strategically
focused capacity to support high development priorities.

• Human Capacity – building a critical mass of knowledge workers,

increasing technical skills among users and strengthening local
capabilities.

• Policy – supporting a transparent and inclusive policy process,

promoting fair and open competition, and strengthening institutional
capacity to implement and enforce policies.

• Enterprise – improving access to financial capital, facilitating access

to global and local markets, enforcing appropriate tax and property
rights regimes, enabling efficient business processes and stimulating
domestic demands for ICT.

• Content and Applications – providing demand-driven information

which is relevant to the needs and conditions experienced by local
people.

There is no doubt in our minds that the information and knowledge economy
is generating opportunities across all sectors in a number of countries. It is a
new source for the creation of quality jobs, wealth generation, income
redistribution and poverty alleviation, as well as for rapid economic
development, prosperity and a source for facilitating global competitiveness.
However, as a Government, we do acknowledge that if Ghana is to move her
industrially weak, subsistence agriculture-based economy towards an
information and knowledge economy, then we, as a nation, will need to
develop and implement a comprehensive integrated ICT-led socio-
economic development policies, strategies and plans.

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It is in this regard that the NPP Government after coming into power,
initiated the process of developing an ICT policy and plan that takes into
account the socio-economic development aspirations of the nation. Some
work has been done, but lot a more need to be done to finalize the process.
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) which has been leading the
‘ICT for Development’ process in African countries under the framework of
the Africa Information Society Initiative (AISI), has kindly agreed to assist
Ghana to move its process forward by facilitating and supporting the work
of the National ICT Policy and Plan Development Committee. To this end,
the Ministry has set up the Drafting Committee under the leadership and
chairmanship of Professor Clement Dzidonu.

Essentially, what my Ministry has in its possession now is the Framework

Document, which specifies and defines the general problem and policy
areas. Considerable amount of work has already been done and what will be
required will be to fill in the gaps to bring it in line with the objectives of the
process and then proceed with the other stages of the process.

Professor Dzidonu, as some of you may be aware is an international expert

and advisor to a number of African Governments in this area. He has been
assisting a number of African countries under the auspices of the ECA, to
develop their ICT policy and plans. He developed the highly praised
Rwandan ICT-led socio-economic policy and plan, which is being adopted
as a model by a number of African countries. He is involved in the ICT
policy and plan development process in other countries including Malawi,
Kenya, and Nigeria among others. Of late he was engaged by the African
Development Bank (ADB) to assist in the development of the NEPAD Short
Term ICT Action Plan, which was approved by the Heads of States and is
now being implemented by the Regional Economic Communities under the
auspices of the NEPAD.

The other members of the Committee are:

• Dr. Sam Somuah, an IT Consultant;

• Mr. Kwame Agati, a Legal Practitioner;

• Mr. Abdulai Mohammed-Sani, from the National Communication
Authority
• (NCA) Board Member;

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 • Mrs Marian Tackie, Executive Secretary of the National Council for
Women and Development (NCWD);

• Mr.Crosby Tekyi-Mills, from the Ministry of Communication and

Technology;

• Mr. K. Ofosu Adarkwa, Ministry of Communication and Technology;

• Mr. Issah Yahaya, also of the Ministry of Communication and

Technology; (Secretary)

The Task of the Committee

The Committee’s Task is to develop on the basis of extensive consultation
with all stakeholders country-wide, an integrated ICT-led socio-economic
development Policy and Plan for Ghana - the implementation of which will
assist in accelerating Ghana’s socio-economic development process.

Its work begins immediately and the consultative process will be an all-
inclusive one involving dialogues with Government Ministers on a one-to-
one basis. Also group consultative meetings and briefing sessions will be
held with key organizations and stakeholders in the public and private
sectors as well as Civil Society including the Academic Institutions.
Extensive dialogue with also be held with the Ministry of Economic
Planning and Regional Cooperation and the National Development Planning
Commission during the process to ensure that the Committee’s work
addresses key socio-economic developmental priorities, programmes and
areas of the Government.

I want to take this opportunity to emphasize that the exercise we are

undertaking is not aimed at developing a sectoral ICT policy or plan but
rather to develop an ICT-driven socio-economic development policy and
plan that will aid our developmental process and move our economy and
society towards a knowledge based information society and economy in the
shortest possible time. We in the NPP Government strongly believe that
the information and knowledge economy is the economy of the future.

The job for this Committee being launched this morning is to lay out the
roadmap in terms of policy and the corresponding plan that will assist us in

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achieving this goal as a nation. The Committee’s Programme of work is
broken down into three phases.

Phase 1 will concentrate on the development of an Integrated ICT-led Socio-

Economic Development Framework for Ghana. The Framework Document
will provide an analytical basis for the development of the subsequent
Policy document and the Plan and will be based on a review and analysis of
the current national socio-economic development frameworks, policies,
strategies and provisions as well as the ICT development, deployment and
exploitation profile of Ghana.

Phase 2 will be devoted to the development of an Integrated ICT-led Socio-

Economic Development Policy and Strategies for Ghana (The Policy
Document). The Policy Document will provide details of the Government’s
policy commitments in relation to WHAT needs to be done towards the
realization of the Vision for Ghana through the exploitation and
development of ICTs.

The Committee hopes to complete the policy process by December 2002,

when the draft policy will be submitted to Cabinet and thereafter to
Parliament. The 3rd Phase, which will be a six month consultative process
involving all key stakeholders will concentrate on the development of the
Plan. This will produce the first ICT Plan for Ghana, guided by the
Government’s Policy commitments, and we envisage that this would be
ready for consideration by Cabinet by June 2003.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish to acknowledge that this process has been on-
going for some time. In 1998 for instance, there was a national conference
for a Communications Policy. What we are embarking upon now is to
expand the focus and to position ICT as the enabler of the country’s socio-
economic development programme. It is in this respect that this process is
referred to as the “Ghana’s Integrated ICT-led Socio-Economic
Development Policy and Plan”.

It is our hope and prayer that what we initiated last year, will now be ably
guided to its ultimate conclusion and Ghana can also join the ranks of other
countries on the continent that have developed and benefited from an ICT-
led policy process.

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If there is need for any clarifications, I shall invite the ECA team to throw
more light on the process.

I thank you for your attention. I wish you God’s blessings.