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Veep Calls For More Action |
| The Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, has asked development partners to back their promises to support West Africa with real actions, since rhetoric has no place in the sub-region’s development transition. |
Speaking at a conference on expanding Information Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure in West Africa, in Accra yesterday, the Vice-President said the sub-region had the challenge of meeting its Millennium Development Goals, as well as information society targets, and would need talk backed by actions.
“Let me remind participants to this conference that the quest for rapid socio-economic development in our part of the world does not allow us the luxury of conference talks with little action,” Alhaji Mahama stated, when he opened a high-level conference on ICT to identify and take advantage of its opportunities in West Africa.
On the theme “West Africa ICT Road Map to Opportunities”, the conference, meant to introduce American investors in the ICT industry to help expand ICT infrastructure in West Africa, was put together by the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) and the US State Department.
ICT giants such as Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, Alcatel Lucent, Motorola and Qualcomm sponsored the event, which attracted 200 participants from government officials and the private sector from the US and 16 West African countries.
Alhaji Aliu Mahama said Ghana already had a policy to accelerate ICT and integrate itself into the information society, which, he said, would improve lives and the socio-cultural well-being of the country.
The Vice-President said although the West African sub-region had the requisite human resources in ICT, the region had not seen any significant investments in cross-border ICT infrastructure that would provide the needed impact for development.
He said Ghana had been an exceptional case because it created the enabling environment which had contributed in attracting investments leading to the growth in tele-density (telecommunications penetration) from as low as four per cent in 2001 to about 37 per cent at the end of last year.
The investors from the US are interested in all aspects of ICT across West Africa.
These include e-governance, commercial partnerships in expanding communications networks, developing fibre optic backbone networks towards submarine communications systems, implementing solutions for rural connectivity, as well as the provision of e-learning and telemedicine.
The Vice-President also called on the investors to help the sub-region to fight cyber crime which continued to mar the modest successes she had chalked up in ICT.
The Deputy Director of USTDA, Ms Leocadia I. Zak, said in addition to the conference, the agency also provided avenues by which Ghana could learn from US private sector experience, technology and ingenuity to further the country’s development.
Recognising the importance of regulatory framework in attracting private sector investment, the agency was also sponsoring training programmes for ICT leaders across Africa.
She announced a $745,000 support for ICT projects in Liberia and Niger for feasibility studies in the telecoms sectors of both countries.
The US Co-ordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, Mr David Gross, said at a press conference shortly after the opening session, that the entry of Vodafone, an international giant, into Ghana was a welcome news for the country, as it gave credence to the country’s congenial regulatory framework for telecommunications.
Commenting on how West Africa could participate in telemedicine and other development-oriented ICT activities, Mr Gross said the sub-region needed to provide the necessary regulatory framework and liberalise its cable licensing to drive down prices and allow the influx of submarine cables.
The Minister of Communications, Dr Benjamin Aggrey-Ntim, announced that the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi had been selected as a hub of a Pan African project for a super hospital network sponsored by the Indian government.
It would be linked to major hospitals and clinics in the country and be connected to other African hospitals such as the Ibadan University Hospital in Nigeria to further telemedicine on the continent.
These network of hospitals would then be linked to big Indian hospitals for information sharing and joint medical surgeries and consultations.
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