National Cyber Security Centre in the Offing

By Kingsley Asare

A National Cyber Security Centre is to be established to combat cyber security threats and crimes in the country, the Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has said.

She also said a National Computer Incident Response Team is to be established to quickly deal with computer attacks.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful, who disclosed this at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 2018 conference held in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and made available to the Times said this move formed part of government's strategies to promote a safe digital and cyber environment to attract more investments to the sector.

She disclosed that her outfit had reviewed the annual cyber security celebrations initiatives this year by extending the week-long celebration to one month in order to create awareness across all regions of the country.

"The promotion of safe cyber hygienic practices through awareness creation and public education will be sustained and we are laying a special emphasis on Child Online Protection as well, she said, adding that "Ghana welcomes deepened resolutions on international cooperation towards building confidence and trust in the use of Information Communication Technology globally."

The Minister stressed that government had created a congenial environment for the telecommunication industry to thrive so as to deepened mobile broadband and data use penetration in the country.

"With widespread broadband infrastructure in the country and international bandwidth provided by five submarine optic fibre cables, Ghana with a population of over 29 million people has recorded mobile voice penetration of 137.38 per cent and data penetration of 75.54 per cent. Ghana's telecommunication sector has over 20 internet service providers with an average download speed of 4.78 mega bytes per second and is still growing stronger due to the enabling environment created for the private sector to thrive," she said.

The Minister said recognising the importance of digital equity, government was taking steps to bridge the digital divide by introducing initiatives aimed at supporting and empowering the citizenry to embrace the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT).

To this end, she said, government this year alone had constructed 400 rural telephony sites with 80 repeater stations and connected almost a million people.

The Minister also said Ghana had commenced the issuance of biometric national identification cards to citizens and residents to facilitate the development of a common data base to enhance public service delivery.

In addition, she said Ghana had established mobile money interoperatability platform to aid financial inclusion of the unbanked of the Ghanaian society, saying that "this is promoting a cash light society and alternative channels for access to digital financial services riding on the back of the mobile telephony infrastructure of the country.

"We have also provided assistive technology enabled devices to our vision impaired undergraduates to their computer literacy and education. We aim to extend that facility to all our schools for the blind. We will leave no one behind in our quest to narrow the digital divide," she said.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful pledged the country's commitment to support the ITU to achieve its objectives and also meet the telecommunication needs of the people on the African continent.

Read Full Story