Geospatial technology for Ghana’s development

At the end of the two-day geospatial fv orum recently held in Accra, the message was forcefully put across that Ghana’s quest for poverty reduction and the transformation in the lives of the majority of the people depended on the sustainable management and utilisation of its natural resources coupled with the ability and power to harness modern technologies.

Under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the geospatial forum, with special focus on Ghana, brought together participants from the geospatial community in the country.

Scientists, the academia, researchers, as well as organisations such as the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, the Second Ghana Land Administration Project, the Ghana Institution of Surveyors, the Lands Commission and the Town and Country Planning Department all took part in the forum.

The forum provided a common platform for the participants, including but not limited to policy makers, the government, industry players, service providers, technology users and decision makers to interact and share ideas and best practices towards further expansion and appropriate application of geospatial data and technology which is sine qua non for the envisaged socio-economic development of all countries, including Ghana.

The 57th independence rain

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, in an inaugural address read for him by Prof. Bruce Banoeng-Yakubo, Chief Director of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, emphasised the importance of geospatial technology in addressing various government and societal issues by enabling agencies to carry out their functions quickly and more efficiently with reliable, accurate, and relevant information at the right time and place. 

The minister said the technology allowed the processing, manipulation and collation, as well as selective presentation, storage and efficient dissemination of data, leading to improved and precise decision-making at various levels and ensuring increased opportunities for industry, governance, business and the society as a whole.

Indeed, observers have said that if Ghana had the potential to harness geospatial technology efficiently and to the hilt, the country would have been able to forestall the agony of the schoolchildren, his Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama, the guest of the anniversary, President Alpha Conde of Guinea, and the security forces that had to suffer the vagaries of the weather, as well as a host of others who found themselves in similar positions from across the country on the day Ghana was marking its 57th independence anniversary.

Geospatial take-off

Welcoming the participants to the forum, which also included leading geospatial and industry experts from other corners of the globe, Prof.  Banoeng-Yakubo  said under the Land Administration Project (LAP-2), the Ministry was formulating various policies including a survey and mapping policy, a geodetic reference network (GRN), a national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI) a national spatial development framework (NSDF) and a new land act and land use bill for the country and that those were expected to provide the framework for what he described as the ‘complete geospatial take-off ’ for Ghana.

The Minister of Environment, Science Technology and Innovation,  Dr Oteng Adjei, in his address said it was important for the country not to limit the use of geospatial technologies to the production of data layers, the generation of data bases and maintenance and updating thereof, but must consider making geospatial analysis on land data part of the collective efforts to also encourage the business community that the application of geospatial technologies could help them to maximise the planning and expansion of their businesses, as well as obtain well-processed data  for informed management decision.

Considering the absolute and vital importance of geospatial technology in development, one cannot but agree with Prof. Banoeng-Yakubo that Ghana must geospatially ‘take off’ now as the country appears to have been taxing for far too long.

On  the theme, ‘Envisioning spatially enabled Ghana,’ the two-day forum was organised by the Ministry of  Lands and Natural Resources in collaboration with the Geospatial Media and Communications of South Africa, and the Second Ghana Land Administration Project.  

The Land Administration Project, currently in its second phase, is a 15-25 year land administration intervention for an efficient, sustainable, transparent and decentralised land administration system for Ghana with funding support from the World Bank, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (D-FATD) formerly CIDA of Canada, and the Government of Ghana.

Geospatial technology is the technique for acquiring, processing, classifying, visualising and analysing spatially referenced data of the earth and their application to the study of the earth’s surface features.

Writers Email: ksersah@yahoo.com.