Ghana’s success in the emerging
knowledge economy would largely depend on how well the country adopts and
adapts to a comprehensive and integrated Information Communication Technology
(ICT) led economy.
Mr
Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communications, who said this, added that
recognizing the opportunities offered by ICT, Government had consistently
pursued a policy to make ICT a driver of national development through the ICT
“for Acceleration Development policy process.”
The Minister made the observation during the launch of “Ghana Dot Com’s
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers” accredited registrar
service of domain name and clouding arching, including Sahara.Net,
Ncs-Cloud.Net and e-Shika.Net, in Accra.
Ghana Dot Com limited is a descendant company of Network Computer
systems established in 1998, to support companies and organizations to operate
more efficiently in an increasingly competitive environment.
The e-Shika.net,
is a payment processor that interconnects financial services in Ghana to the
global payment services and online.
The sahara.net is
a platform that allows organisations and individuals to register domain names
and host them as websites and develop their content and applications.
The Ncs-Cloud.net
is also a cloud application, which allows users to preserve vital information
and all type of documents electronically for subsequent access with proper
authorization.
Mr Haruna called
on stakeholders to address the issue of developing locally relevant content and
applications, since it could contribute to national development.
Professor Nii
Quaynor, Chairman of Ghana Dot Com, said the country’s internet penetration,
which fell below Africa’s average for some time now, had not recovered since.
“Out of this
destruction emerged a formidable internet content, applications and software
company, Ghana Dot Com,” he noted.
Prof. Quaynor
said the company had re-kindled the internet software industry in the country,
and arranged a winning set of technologies, investors and partners to serve the
African region.
Mr. Kwame Peprah,
the former Minister of Finance, advocated more investment in the ICT sector to
win the emerging unemployment situation in the country.
He appealed
to the youth to take advantage of the opportunities in the sector to empower
themselves for the growth and development of the economy.
