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The Minister of Communications Dr. Omane Boamah has announced a new pro-poor policy, following efforts to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting in the country.

The new policy will see the government provide funds to buy digital TV boxes for distribution to poor households as part of Ghana’s digital migration efforts. 

Dr. Omane Boamah, announced the policy in Parliament on Wednesday but fell short of announcing how much the new programme will cost the tax payer. 

Contributing to debates on the 2016 budget, Dr. Boamah reiterated that the full migration will be completed in 2016.

He said despite several efforts by previous government in “2006 and 2008 the migration did not take place” adding that “under President John Dramani Mahama, the migration is taking place and by the middle of 2016, we would have completed the migration process.”

“In terms of the distribution of the satellite boxes, government will make an intervention because as a social democratic government, we believe that the international agreement that is saying that we should migrate from analogue to the digital broadcasting must also be sensitive to the plight of the have-nots. And it is not everyone who can change the television receiving sense from analogue to digital.”

The Minster explained that such people would have to be supported with setup boxes.

“As a result of that, government will procure some setup boxes and ensure that it distributes them to the have-nots and this is something that we promise transparency and equitable distribution,” the Communications Minister added.