USE OF ICT IN GOVERNANCE

By Mawutodzi K. Abissath

Daily Graphic, Monday, June 19, 2006

Always remember this African proverb: 'Death does not book an appointment.' Therefore, you must be ready to respond to its call, whenever and wherever, as you go about your daily activities.

Technologies upon technologies have come and gone in human history. The industrial revolution, for instance, just to mention one, came and passed without much effect on Africa in particular. 

But the Information and Communications Technology ICT) came and the very fibre of human existence from birth to death is being called to order.

This explains why mankind is now living in a world of e-this', 'e-that', 'e- here' and 'e-there'. In fact, as far back as in 1999, one South African Minister for Communications, calculated that the rate at which the lCT was riding the world, 'If you do not dot com, you will be dot dead'. Ghana can be said to be one of the countries in Africa that has seen the light as far as lCT and its upshots are concerned. Ghana has recognised the fact that to be able to compete on the global market, her agriculture dominated economy must be transformed into a service-sector economy driven by high value-added information and knowledge-based technology.

In other words, nations that are dominating the world economy today are not only depending on agriculture or natural mineral resources, but on information and communication technologies.

One concrete thing that Ghana did in that direction, which was commendable, was the formulation of what is known as Information and Communications Technology for Accelerated Development (lCT4AD). This policy document can be accessed on the Ghana Portal www.ghana.gov.gh.

The focus of this article is on Portals and their place in e-government strategies globally. But give me a moment and I shall be right back as electronic journalists will put it. In Ghana, the overall objective of the ICT4AD is 'to engineer an ICT-led socio-economic development process to transform Ghana into a middle income, information-rich, knowledge-based and technology-driven economy.' I am quoting from E-Ghana Project document prepared by Ghana's' Ministry of Communications.

That the priority focus areas of the ICT ICT4AD Policy has 14 pillars. These include Accelerated Human Resource Development; Government Administration and Service Delivery; E-Government; Private Sector Development; Export-oriented ICT Products and Services Industry; E-Agriculture; Globally Competitive Value-Added Services Sector Regional business service and ICT hub and Deploying ICTs in the Community.

The others are: E-Health - promoting National Health through ICT; Rapid ICT Infrastructure Development; Regional and District Scientific and Industrial Research capacity development; Legal, Regulatory, and Institutional Framework; Local and Foreign direct Investment Drive in ICTs and Facilitating National Security and Law and Order.

It is important to inform the people of Ghana and beyond that to ensure that this ICT4AD and the entire preceding components are implemented; the government has set up a body or agency within the Ministry of Communications to do the job. It is known as the Ghana Information and Communications

Technology Directorate (GICThD). This information was disclosed by Mr Kwadwo. Anyane-Yeboa who addressed participants drawn from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) who benefited from a recent one day seminar on E- Governance at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in lCT, Accra.

That seminar which was jointly organised by the Ministry of Information and National Orientation and the Ministry of Communications and sponsored by the International Institute of Communication and Development (lICD), based in the Netherlands, was aimed among other things, to educate and create awareness among government workers to-understand basic e-governance concepts; to be familiar with the use of ICT in governance in general and above all, to examine examples of National Portals and electronic gateways and their roles in e-government strategy as against ordinary websites.

Two expatriate experts in Portal Development served as resource persons alongside their Ghanaian counterparts who took participants through the programme. It was there that the basic difference between portals and websites was explained to participants. Simply put, a web portal is a website that provides a starting point, a gateway, or portal, to other resources on the Internet or an intranet. Intranet portals are also known as "enterprise information portals. Thus, a portal is an aggregated and integrated website connected to other websites.

A portal which is a collection of websites is larger and bigger in terms of website. Let's say that individuals and organisations can have websites but nations or states can possess portals.

This is why the Government of Ghana Website is referred to as Ghana Portal. It is the mega-electronic- gateway to Ghana as far as the World Wide Web (www.com) is concerned.

Without exaggerating, one can affirm that Ghana is on course when it comes to the establishment of a National Portal. Even though the current National Portal is still in its basic stage in terms of scope and content, it has classified Ghana among the nations that possess National Portals.

This is crucial because until April 2003, when HE the Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, formally launched the Ghana Portal, within the premises of the then Ministry of Information and Presidential Affairs, our beloved motherland did not have anything that could be referred to as an official website of the Republic of Ghana.

Fortunately, the government has put measures in place to upgrade technologically and enhance the content management of the current National Portal as part of a holistic E- Ghana Project. Prof. Jonas Amoapim, Director, GICThD, who presented a paper on E-Ghana Project at the seminar for MDAs, enlightened participants about the e-Government strategy for Ghana.

For example, he disclosed that Ghana will be connected to a national Fiber Optic Backbone leading to establishment of other backbone networks such as metro backbone network, rural network and national data centre and so on. With all this infrastructure in  place with the support of the World Bank, the National Portal would be enhanced whereby the Ministry of Information and National Orientation through its operational wing, the Information Services Department (ISD) will maintain and sustain its traditional responsibility for the general content management of the Portal of the Republic of Ghana.

Besides the provision of government information, the Portal would be positioned to deliver other vital public services online that will be provided by other agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, and the Land Title Registry and so on. Prof. Amoapim gave other economic gains Ghana stands to benefit from the E-Ghana Project in terms of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and local ICT business.

He explained that the service market worldwide is estimated to be $728bn by next year. In fact, according to him, by 2007, the global BPO market will be $173bn.

That capturing five per cent of BPO would yield Ghana $8.65m. This strategy will also transform Ghana into a prime-destination for BPO, which will encourage the development of ICT business in the country, he stressed. No country that is serious about embarking on knowledge-based economy will fail to place premium on its National Portal Canada, Singapore and the United States of America are leading on the world league table of National Portals.

What is worthy of note is the fact that they started their journey not today Singapore for instance, started its e-Government strategy over 25 years ago. The Singapore Government slogan is: "Any public service that can be provided electronically must be provided electronically."

Ghana must take its current National Portal seriously and make it the heartbeat of the E-Ghana Project and in less than 10 years or so, Ghana will boast of an enviable Portal in West Africa if not on the entire continent.

The author works with Information Services Department (ISD) abissath@gmail.com

NB: This article was first published by the Daily Graphic. Monday, June 19, 2006