IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

An international trade expert has described the UNIPASS Trade Facilitation Tool to be deployed at the country’s ports as being among the best holistic and comprehensive systems developed to boost trade facilitation and customs management in the world.

According to him, the Customs Uni-Pass International Agency (CUPIA) of South Korea, which designed and built the UNIPASS technology, has consistently been ranked among the top 10 on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Ranking on the Trading Across Borders criteria.

He said ICT had the capacity to solve road accidents and challenged the public to determine how ICT could be used to improve road safety.

He further encouraged developers of these platforms to customise the ICT applications to make motoring safe. “If you consider the number of people who lose their lives and individuals who suffer physically, it is clear that the carnage on our roads and transport sector in general negatively affects the growth of our country and world at large,” he said at a ceremony in Accra to commemorate World Telecommunication and Information Society Day in Accra.

Dr Edward Omane Baomah, Minister of Communications has cautioned Ghanaian youth against cyber related crimes and instead use the internet for career and academic advancement that would inure to national development.

He said government was establishing a computer emergency response unit to deal with cyber insecurity, as it (government) would not allow its investments in the sector to be misapplied.

The Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has launched an electronic procurement system estimated to save the country $100million annually through the prevention of corruption and inefficiencies in public procurement.

The $5million Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GNEPS), the first of its kind in West Africa, is part of an e-transform Ghana project being executed with a $97 million World Bank credit provided in 2014.

He said: "It is our hope that it will improve our financial services, improve the health services and the educational system and transform the agriculture sector through value addition."

Vice President Mahama lauded the steady growth of telecommunication services in Ghana with over 17 million subscribers, giving a teledensity of 75 percent compared to less than three per cent in 1997.

The Volta River Authority (VRA) plans to digitise most of its operations from next year to improve efficiency and profitability.

It said the power generation space was now very competitive with a lot of independent power producers however, the authority believed that leveraging on technology by introducing programmes such as the internet and artificial intelligence would enable it to lead its competitors

Even though the Commission is working around the clock to find possible ways of dealing with the issue, Mr. Kanga cautioned voters to register at polling stations in their neighbourhood.

The exhibition will pave the way for a comprehensive voter’s register since voters would be given the opportunity to verify their inclusion in the register that will form the basis of the country’s new electoral database.

The Wakanda City of Return project has been launched in Cape Coast to pave way for the creation of an ultra-modern smart city that befits Cape Coast as a tourism hub.

The African Diaspora Development Institute (ADDI), two local companies and the City of Cape Coast that form the fulcrum around the building of the city say, they are leveraging on the heritage and cultural tourism assets of Ghana to create a place of pilgrimage for the people of African descent to know about their history, culture, civilization of Africa and our role in the creation of the new world economy.

Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, has said that while the world is embracing digital revolution, there is the need to manufacture physical machines that could help every country to extract her natural resource endowment.

He was of the opinion that poverty gap was a technological gap because no country in the world had developed without the capacity to manufacture basic devices and machines.

Women in particular are not supposed to use ICT for marketing and advertising alone, but to use the technology for information gathering and sharing of knowledge. There is, therefore, the need for the country to adequately train women in the use of ICT.

Some girls or women, who take courses in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics other related programmes excel.

The project will deploy portal infrastructure to provide a platform for content management, document management, workflow and e-Forms, service integration and information and application security for government agencies.

The Government of Ghana has already made significant investments in communications infrastructure and continues to seek solutions, which leverage the infrastructure to improve government services and extend the reach of such services to all its citizens, in particular the most vulnerable, Yusupha B. Crookes, Country Director for Ghana said.

The World Bank is ready to support Ghana in its ambition to digitalize its economic and social sectors according to Hafez Ghanem, the institution's vice president.

During a meeting with the country’s vice-president Mahamudu Bawumia on March 25, 2019, the executive invited Ghanaian authorities to increase their infrastructure investments to extend their internet penetration rate, modernise the competition regulatory framework, reduce service costs and boost public institutions’ capacities. According to Hafez Ghanem, the end-goal is to guarantee efficient use of the digital in public institutions.

The Ghana’s Youth in Mobile Application Development programme seeks to train secondary school students to develop mobile applications known popularly as apps.

This forms part of activities marking AITI-KACE 10th anniversary celebration which also includes engaging with different stakeholder groups around Ghana to deliver innovative Information and Technology (IT) training packages.

The Eastern Regional Director of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Mr Mohammed Pelpuo, said the agency would soon train personnel on the new Electronic Health (E-health) system to improve quality healthcare services.

He said that the new module to be introduced by the YEA and World Vision International, a Non-Governmental Organisation, would equip trainees with mobile phones networked by the NGO, to work hand in hand with the Community Health Planning and Services in deprived areas to ensure that the health needs of the people were met.

Mr. Eric Akumiah, President of the Society, said this was the surest way to build a knowledge-based society and aid Ghana to become competitive on the global market.

It is estimated that only 5.2 per cent of the country’s population has regular access to the internet.

Work on the structure had already been completed and it has now been left with the installation of the computers and fixing of the letter boxes.

The project is being funded by the Ministry of Communication. Contract was awarded in April last year.

Elections 2012 is estimated to cost the nation 243, 528, 305.00 Ghana Cedis, Electoral Commission (EC) Electoral Budget available to the Ghana News Agency at the weekend revealed.

The budget estimates that the Biometric Voter Registration Exercise will cost 148,942,378.00 Ghana cedis; the exhibition of the Provisional Register 7,477,966.00 Ghana cedis and the Presidential and Parliamentary elections 87,107,961.00 Ghana cedis.

About 42,000 temporary personnel have been trained to operate the 7,000 digital registration kits for the exercise with the capacity to register between 100 and 150 persons per day.