Communications reporters push for expert to head ministry
The Network of Communications Reporters (NCA) has called on the President-elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to appoint a communications minister who is abreast of issues within the telecommunications industry in order to add meaningful growth to the sector.
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“The selection should not just be based on party affiliation or job for the boys but must be based on competence and deep knowledge of the sector,” a release signed by the Dean of NCR, Mr Charles Benoni Okine, intimated.
It said at a time when information and communications technology (ICT) had been the driver of all development issues, there was the need for the incoming administration to ensure that its appointee to the sector was one who could use the untapped potential of the industry to help transform the economy at all levels.
“We know some ministers learn on the job but we can say without any equivocation that such persons often lose sight of the task ahead and tend to play politics instead of driving the sector to reach its fullest potential,” the release said.
It added that such heads also spent an awful length of time learning and catching up on issues in the sector, which tend to leave the country behind in so many areas including policy formulation, implementation of ongoing programmes and projects and the general growth of the sector.
According to the release, it was best to appoint professionals and experts within the sector to ensure that the dealings and engagement with players and professionals in the sector were more cordial, seamless and progressive.
“We want one who will work to support the government’s policies such as agriculture and agribusiness (including agro-processing) using ICT as an enabler,” it said, adding that, “for that to materialise, the minister should be well conversant with the issues within the sector to be able to support the government and the private sector to achieve that laudable objective.”
The release said the country had many unemployed youth in the country who were IT savvy but lacked the opportunity to use their talent to the fullest. ICT is, therefore, a great source of employment generation.
“It is against this background that we think that should ICT be taken more seriously, these young ones will be employed to develop simple Apps, among other things, to support the initiative and to make it a reality,” it said.
The release said the country had implemented a number of initiatives such as the e-governance and e-health programmes and had also brought some significant changes at the ports with the introduction of the single window system among other things.
“We therefore, believe that a competent and a knowledgeable minister will be in a better stead to take these programmes to the next level to increase access to health, ensure greater efficiency in the country’s governance systems while helping to rake in more revenue from the ports and to block the leakages that deny the state its needed revenue to accelerate development and provide jobs for the masses,” it said.