Minister of Communications familiarises with operations of key agencies

Dr Omane Boamah, Minister of Communications on Thursday paid a working visit to three Agencies in Accra, under his Ministry to equip himself with their operations. The agencies included the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), Ghana Multimedia Incubator Centre (GMIC) and the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES). Mr William Tevie, Director General of NITA, told the Minister that the agency is responsible for the implementation of all e-government projects. He said it is also the Information Communication Technology (ICT) arm of the Ministry of Communication, which promotes standards of efficiency in ICT and ensure high quality services. The Director General said it is also responsible for the implementation and enforcement of the provisions of the Electronic Transaction. �We implement and adopt the digital signature technology by government,� he added. Mr Tevie noted that the agency runs projects including ICT policy framework for Ministries, Department and Agencies, Ghana Open Data Initiatives, e-learning, e-health, e-justice, e-immigration, business registration, marriages, biometric passport project implementation and government interoperability framework. He said some of the challenges facing the agency are maintenance cost of network infrastructure with regards to base terminal stations towers, fiber optic, technical staffing, business development and general funding. Mr Solomon Ashante Dartey, Project Director, GMIC, said the centre promotes ICT Entrepreneurship and Technology commercialisation through the incubation of innovative ICT ideas as business start-ups. He said the centre develop ICT skills and build capacity in the area of business process outsourcing to create the skill pool needed to attract world-class business process outsourcing operators under the Government�s ICT for Accelerated Development initiative. He said delays in the release of Government�s component of cost-share arrangement, budget cuts private Sector Support and accesses to capital were some of the challenges facing the Centre. Mr Dartey explained to the Minister that partnerships with academic and research institutions are not flexible and availability of innovative solutions. Dr Omane Boamah commended the agencies for their good work in contributing to national development. He urged them to collaborate with the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT when holding their training programmes. He also called on NITA to engage the Ghana Post in their digital progress.