Hundreds of digital entrepreneurs, stakeholders and collaborators gathered for this year’s Tech In Ghana Conference hosted by The Ministry of Communication and AB2020 at the Accra Digital Centre from 21st to 22nd November 2017 in Accra.
This followed the success of the maiden conference held in London in February 2017.
The 2-day event, under the auspices of the Ministry Of Communications in collaboration with Accra Digital Centre, highlighted locally developed technology, brought together government, the private sector, and key industry leaders, to collaborate on building local tech into world-class systems.
It also explored the possibility of working together collectively in making Ghana a leading tech hub in the sub-region. The Conference created an opportunity for start-up tech companies and their CEOs and already existent tech companies to learn about the advancement of technology in Ghana and gain new knowledge for their field of expertise.
Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Communication, Vincent Odotei Sowah called on the private sector to take advantage of government’s enormous facility in order to augment its activities.
“Exponential growth in the adoption of digital technology is transforming every expert of our lives. Delivering essential services to more people every day, accelerating economic growth, increasing citizen participation and boosting job creation. Advances in the digital and mobile technology are delivering far-reaching economic and social benefit for countries, companies, and citizens,” he said.
According to the minister, “In 2016 alone the digital economy was worth 11.5 trillion dollars from 15.5 percent of the world GDP and Markens estimated that the internet could contribute three hundred billion dollars to Africa’s GDP by the year 2025.”
He added that: “Africa is positioned to uniquely benefit from digitization by leapfrogging directly to cutting edge technologies. Ghana is uniquely positioning to maximize the unprecedented opportunities the data evolution offers. The government of Ghana under the leadership of his Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo recognizes the advantages and benefits of a digital economy and as part of Ghana’s digital agenda and roadmap to digitalization, we have embarked on an ambitious infrastructure development program the ICT centre.
“Ghana has a relatively ICT backbone infrastructure including the submarine landing stations and terrestrial fibre extending to neighboring countries. The introduction of paperless port operations, the integration e-immigration system, e-procurement, e-parliament, e-justice, e-cabinet and the deployment of smart workplaces across government among other initiatives which are all at various stages of implementation and the development of an interoperability system to integrate government database all is a significant milestone in Ghana’s journey to digitalization.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM