Leveraging ICT for SMARTer Growth in Ghana

Transcription

1 Leveraging ICT for SMARTer Growth in Ghana Minister of Communications Dr. Edward Omane Boamah February 28, 2012

2 STATEMENT FROM THE PRESIDENT OF GHANA STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS FEB 21, 2013 Government will continue with the positive outlook and promote the rapid development of broadband infrastructure to reach all parts of the country to ensure that the improved connectivity provides better access to health care and health information, opportunities for education and training, transportation, protection of environment and management of natural resources and to support E-govt to create transparency in government

3 Fibre Status and Extension Project Eastern Corridor Fiber Optic project (780KM of Fibre from Ho to Bawku linking Yendi to Tamale) Managed Services Backup Datacenter Upgrade Network with LTE Solution Overhead (OPGW)/ Underground 10/18/24 Core Underground 48-Core T di /Elubo connectivity Int nal Fibre Connectivity linking Ghana to Togo, Benin & Burkina Faso Eastern Corridor Fibre

4 Ghana s Telecommunications Market Highly competitive mobile market with 6 players 25 million subscribers; 100% penetration; Mobile signal coverage through most country 4 submarine cables ; reducing cost of bandwidth Internet users 14% up from 10% in 2010 Airtel (Bharti Airtel) 13% Mobile Market Share Glo Mobile (Globacom) 6% Tigo (Millicom) 12% Expresso (Sudatel) 1% MTN 47% Mobile Coverage Vodafone 21%

5 Private sector capitalizing on enabling environment for IT/ITES 3 large multinational and over 40 small BPO/ ITES companies Nascent developer community Untapped potential for medical transcription

6 Government addressing remaining bottlenecks for IT industry development Technology Park in Tema; Prime location for BPO site in Accra Similar Tech Park opportunity in Cape Coast Collaboration with the World Bank

7 Govt continuing to improve IT Infrastructure to improve services Pilot data center with 140TB capacity Network in 150 districts Ministries, hospitals and universities connected

8 Ghana GCNET Customs Learning from earlier success in customs reform Streamlined processing with star network From. To. 50% increase in revenue Clearance time reduced to few days Administrative Work, Error Prone Paper-based, Time Consuming ===High Costs, Duplicative Controls, Unnecessary Delays, Reactive Approach -- weeks to clear consignments Networking all the parties to a common platform streamlined clearance processes reducing clearance time to few days, increased revenue of about 50% in first 18 months. 8

9 Data Center Overview Internet E-government IP Backbone Data Center in Operation To support eservices and egovt Operations Router Router Security gateway IDS/IPS IDS/IPS Security gateway Multi-layer switch Internet zone Internal Common zone Antivirus gateway Ministry A Private zone Multi-layer switch Ministry B Private zone Front-end Service Network Service Control Gateway Control networ k Maintenance zone Storage Centralized Operation Platform network Security Operation Center Ministry Operation zone Storage zone Back-end Management Network 9 Remote access VPN access Storage Interface FCOE

10 The World Bank has been a Partner from earlier sector reform through eghana Engagement with World Bank Tech Support; spanning from privatization of Ghana Telecom (now Vodafone), licensing of Second Network Operator (now Airtel), support on licensing of remaining operators, and capacity building/regulatory instruments to improve regulations. Recent eghana Project: $56.26 million of IDA financing builds on these developments and focuses on for: (a) e-government applications; and (b) IT industry development Achievements under eghana: Automation of Revenue Agency (GRA ) and Registrar General s completed Additional applications for immigration, justice, procurement and parliament being developed to improve governance and service delivery Major investment promotion leading to some BPO companies locating in Ghana and GASSCOM, a local industry association of ITES/BPO, formed 300 CIOs and 500 BPO agents trained

11 Next frontier for Ghana Smarter use of ICT for transformational growth and development Despite the impressive developments in the country's telecommunications/ict sector, Ghana still ranks very low in ICT adoption (albeit one of the 3 top countries in Africa per ITU estimates - 117th out of 155 countries). Interested to discuss the best strategies for: i) encouraging citizen use of ICT, in particular to create business opportunities and generate jobs; and ii) creating/scaling up applications and services which could transform delivery and reach of public services, especially in the health and education sectors.