By Eunice Hilda Ampomah, GNA
Accra, May 30, GNA – Mrs Patricia Obo-Nai, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vodafone Ghana, has called on the Government, Telcos and other stakeholders to collaborate to achieve Ghana’s desired digital economy.
She said the development of Ghana’s digital economy had become a major focal point on the radar of the government and other stakeholders, particularly in the wake of the on-raging COVID-19 pandemic, which had brought to the fore the critical importance of digital tools and interventions.
For the desired outcome to be attained, Mrs Obo-Nai said certain fundamental factors had to be put in place.
The CEO made the call during a panel discussion at the fifth edition of Ghana CEO Summit held in Accra, on the theme, “Digital Transformation: Powering Business and Government Reset for a Post-Pandemic Economic Resilience. A Public-Private Sector Dialogue”.
In a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency, Mrs Obo-Nai said internet connectivity was an indispensable ingredient in a country’s forward match towards realising a digital economy, however, Ghana continued to rank among the countries with the lowest level of internet penetration.
“In this day and age, we are unfortunately still talking about 2G internet connectivity in major parts of Ghana. How are we going to be able to drive the digital economy in Ghana when, thanks to low coverage, people use handsets that can only make phone calls?” she said.
“There are so many towns in this country that are not connected to the internet. Until the appropriate infrastructure is pegged down, we cannot go beyond these summits and discussions to actually deliver the stated digital economy.”
In the light of these prevalent circumstances, Mrs Obo-Nao noted that the way forward was for the Government to partner with Telcos and other stakeholders to collaborate towards rectifying the current gap in digital infrastructure and subsequently leveraging on this to build a resilient and formidable digital economy.
She said neither the Telcos nor the government on their own could make the digital economy a reality, hence, urged the government to put in place policies, necessary infrastructure and the enabling environment to accelerate Ghana’s digital transformation.
“The current high cost of operation derails all efforts. As it stands now, it costs a Telco a whopping 30 million dollars to acquire enough spectrum to provide 4G internet to a specific location.
“Coupled with this are other operational costs. All these considered, we cannot achieve the much talked about universal access by 2030 unless we join forces. This is why I say that it is a shared responsibility.”
