Ghana must take advantage of digital technologies - World Bank report
The 2016 World Bank Development Report has been launched in Accra with a call on Ghana to take advantage of digital technologies to build the capacities of its citizens.
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In spite of the immense benefits that the digital revolution has brought to other parts of the world, the report noted that Ghana and Africa had not fully benefitted from its immense potential for speedy growth and development.The 2016 report, titled “Digital Dividends”, was authored by Dr Tim Kelly, a Lead ICT Policy Specialist in the World Bank Group.
Need for greater access
Throwing more light on the report at the launch in Accra yesterday, Dr Kelly stressed the need for the government to increase access to the Internet and also make it affordable, open and safe.
That, he said, would require a competitive policy environment that would bring more internet service providers on board.
He also called for more public-private partnerships in that regard and an effective telecommunications and internet regulatory system.
According to Dr Kelly, digital technologies in the country often lacked analogue components such as good governance, capacity building and good institutions.
Significantly, he said, the rural communities were lacking access while those in the cities had unfettered access.
Access linked to wealth
More so, Dr Kelly said, if the right interventions to make the cost of access cheaper, and therefore, affordable, were not put in place, then it would be the case that access to the Internet would be linked to wealth, since only the rich would be able to access the Internet.
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He said while there was the potential for growth, there was the likely risk that such growth might lead to concentration to the disadvantage of rural communities.
“Automation without skills would lead to the risk of polarised markets and greater inequality,” he warned.
Going forward, Dr Kelly stressed the need for a re-thinking of the way people were trained for future jobs, advising more flexibility “in the way we see and plan for future jobs”.
Ghana not doing badly
For her part, the Regional Co-ordinator of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Unit of the World Bank, Ms Mavis Ampah, said Ghana was doing quite well in the area of SIM distribution, but not in terms of internet access.
On the whole, she said the country was doing fairly well, compared with other countries in Africa.
The World Bank, Ms Ampah said, had collaborated with Ghana as far back as 1996, leading to much divestiture and the introduction of competition in the telecommunications industry.
She said the bank was working with the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to automate all the immigration systems of the country, adding that for instance an e-gate and e-immigration had been installed at the Kotoka International Airport and would become functional soon.
But she stressed the need to find a fine balance between ICT deployment and the building of the capacity of Ghanaians, saying much depended on the policy environment.
Writer’s email: victor.kwawukume@graphic.com.gh