NCR pledges to promote ICT as economic driver

COMPUTING

By Nana Appiah Acquaye, Accra, Ghana

The Dean of the newly-formed Network of Communications Reporters, Charles Benoni Okine, has pledged the network’s commitment to ensuring that ICT becomes a major driver of economic growth in the country, given the sector’s enormous and largely under-tapped potential.

He says the network will constantly keep an eye on government policy implementation in the area of ICT as a contribution to ensuring that the country gets the best out of every ICT project.

“If it is said that every 10% growth in ICT in every economy results in an additional percentage increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), then there is no excuse why we should not make it a preoccupation to contribute to making the sector a lot more vibrant,” he added.

Speaking at the official inaugural ceremony of the Network of Communication of Reporters at the Ghana India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT in Accra, the Dean reminded industry players that the Network is not formed to do the bidding of any player in the sector, let alone the regulator or the ministry, but further pointed out that network members will be as objective as possible ensuring utmost fairness in its reportage and advocacy work in the interest of the consumer.

He acknowledged the various transformations in policy direction in the sector, including Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card registration; Mobile Number Portability (MNP) and presently the drive towards migrating to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) which is expected to be fully rolled out by the end of 2014, and stressed NCR’s commitment to help in the education of the public on the digital migration for it to become another major success.

Okine then appealed to the Ministry and other players in the industry to also help broaden the knowledge of the members through workshops and seminars to enable members better understand the issues so they can be in a better stead to pass on the information to public.

The ceremony, which was attended by high profile industry players, was sponsored by tiGO, Vodafone, Nokia,  Airtel, and Alltel Company Ltd.