[caption id="attachment_5455" align="alignnone" width="300"] A Group Photograph of participants at the Workshop[/caption]

The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications (GCT) in partnership with the GSMA, National Communications Authority and the Bureau of National Communications is organizing a two-day training workshop on Disaster Response and Humanitarian Crises Management starting on Thursday 28th March 2019 at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra.

This initiative is part of a wider effort to improve coordination between mobile operators, regulatory authorities, government agencies and the humanitarian community to not just prepare to respond to disasters but leverage mobile technology as well as other critical technological tools to plan, predict, respond effectively or mitigate completely the effect of potential disasters.

Chief Executive of the Chamber, Ing. Kenneth Ashigbey called for simulations among all stakeholders within the disaster management ecosystem to leverage ICT and telecommunications services to mitigate disasters and humanitarian crises facing our country.

“There’s a need to collaborate with our little pockets of excellence and experience to mitigate and respond effectively to disasters and humanitarian crises that may arise”. He said

Over the last few months, there has been several earth tremor counts, with scientists predicting an imminent earthquake with its associated challenges.

Mr. Prince Ofosu Sefah, a Deputy Director General Operations at the National Communications Authority, also underscored the important role ICT and telecommunications plays in the reduction, mitigation and recovery phase of disasters.

He also revealed government’s plan to position ICT and telecommunications at the heart of Ghana’s Emergency Response Operations to alleviate disasters.

The workshop also seeks to propose around the world techniques being deployed by countries similar to Ghana and allow our nation to adopt flexible approaches to policy during emergencies to positively impact response efforts.

The training workshop is a course certified by the United Kingdom Telecommunications Academy, which is an Internationally recognized center of excellence in the provision of ICT education globally.

Key Institutions participating in this workshop are from the Prisons Service, Immigration Service, Police Service, Armed Forces, Fire Service, Meteorological Service, National Security, Bureau of National Investigation, Information Services Department, Ambulance Service, Food & Drugs Authority, Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications, Mobile Network Operators, Tower Infrastructure Companies and others.

Source: Chamber News Desk

[caption id="attachment_4996" align="alignnone" width="300"] Kenneth Ashigbey-CEO of Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications[/caption]

Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Kenneth Ashigbey says more education is needed to reduce the menace of Cyber Crime in the country.

Mr. Ashigbey is of the view that intensifying education on cybercrime is crucial in order to reduce the number of cases recorded.

As at 2017, Ghana lost 97 million dollars to cybercrime.

Delivering a speech at the launch of the Jumia Ghana Mobile Report, Mr Ashigbey said Ghanaians must be more abreast with technology to be able to tackle cyber fraud cases in the country.

“There is a cyber-security policy that is going to parliament that is trying to look at this but you bear me out that, we have been doing that for a while, the criminals have also been at it and they are constantly at the front and so the same way ethical hackers, we need to get ethical scammers so that we can understand the thinking and the mentality of the scammers. The cyberspace is deadly opportunities like this are great for us to educate our people” he stressed.

Meanwhile the Managing Director of Jumia Ghana, Ore Odusanya said his outfit will keep partnering with key mobile brands to provide a bigger and better mobile industry in Ghana.

Mr Odusanya said Ghana’s mobile sector is poised for continuous growth in 2019 especially as there have been increased investments in the sector and the growth in data and mobile money services in the country.

“For us we are trying to ensure that we keep trying to partner with mobile brands, the device makers to make sure that Ghana has a strategy for Africa” he stated.

Source: Ghanaweb.com

[caption id="attachment_4996" align="alignnone" width="300"] Kenneth Ashigbey-CEO of Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications[/caption]

Mr Ken Ashigbey, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, has said network operators in 2018 paid a total of GH¢1.94 billion tax and a direct capital expenditure of over GH¢276 million to the state.

He explained that the mobile industry contributed close to nine percent of Ghana’s total revenue basket and employed more than 1.7 million people directly and indirectly.

Mobile Phone, he said, was a key channel for e-government’s strategy and financial inclusion drive, with public institutions now using mobile money, SMS, and USSD platforms to deliver services to the public.

Mr Ashigbey was speaking during the launch of “Mobile Report” by Jumia Ghana Limited in Accra to enlighten the public on the state of smartphone accessibility in Africa, particularly Ghana, and how it was contributing to socio-economic development.

He said since the inception of mobile phone usage in the country, 25 years ago, the industry had connected close to 70 percent of the population, which amounted to over 20 million individuals and connected about half of the population to the internet through their mobile phones.

“With the government’s drive for digitisation and building smart citizens, leveraging mobile technology is key to the vision and requires collaboration by all stakeholders, including; development organisations, private sector players like; Jumia and the mobile industry itself,” he said.

The collaboration, he said, would create opportunities to extend mobile services to unconnected populations, empower women and reduce all forms of inequality amongst the citizenry.

“I will use this platform to reiterate that mobile is a powerful tool in enhancing people’s lives by enabling them to access personalised, value-added services”.

Speaking on the rampant sale of pre-registered sim cards to mobile phone users, Mr Ashigbey urged telecommunication companies to get a robust database to revalidate sim cards that had been registered to track agents who registered them with their identification cards and sold to customers.

Mr Ore Odusanya, the Managing Director of Jumia Ghana Limited, who delivered the report said, Jumia in 2018 sold 1.5 million smartphones in Africa as against 900 thousand in 2017.

According to the report, he said brands like Huawei and Samsung were reaching out to the underserved segment of the market and introducing affordable smartphones and other brands continued to introduce highly specked smartphones at high prices, which contributed to 60 percent of the smartphones sold in Africa.

These brands, he said, were Infinix, Tecno and Hotwave, adding that, they were among the top five mobile brands on Jumia in 2018.

Mr Odusanya noted that the adoption of smartphones, came the purchase and use of data which implied a direct impact on growth in the sector. He disclosed that mobile broadband coverage in Ghana in 2018 was 80.33 percent and Jumia would launch its "Mobile Week" from April 8 to 14, 2019 to enable members of the public purchase smart phones at discounted prices.

The brands that would participate in the Mobile Week include; Samsung, Tecno, Infinix, Huawei, and Apple.

Source: GNA

[caption id="attachment_5448" align="alignnone" width="300"] Mr. Selorm-Adadevoh-CEO-MTN-Ghana[/caption]

Mr Selorm Adadevoh, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MTN Ghana, has said the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to the development of student’s academic work and this has propelled them to invest in education.

Mr Adadevoh was addressing students and staff of the New Juaben Senior High School at the commissioning of a library and ICT centre at Koforidua.

The facility was built at a cost of GH¢ 602,150.00 and expected to benefit over 2,500 students as well as teachers.

The facility has a 200-seater conventional library, 20-seater ICT centre, teachers common area as well as internet service.

He said through the MTN Ghana Foundation, his outfit has championed and supported national development efforts by investing in education, health and economic empowerment.

Mr Adadevoh said so far over GH¢33 million has been invested by the Foundation in 144 projects across the country out of which 82 are in education.

He said 26 ICT centers and four libraries have been built and handed over to schools, whiles, two libraries have been restocked through the Foundation.

Mr Adadevoh said research has proven that libraries are still considered very important by a greater majority of people.

He said the main function of a school library is to develop the reading and research habits of students, fill the information gap and helps to open the world view of students.

Mr Adadevoh said the conventional approach to library development in the past was just providing a facility with books, shelves and sitting areas, however, the effect of digitization has become pervasive and libraries now have ICT facilities embedded in them.

He urged the school administration and the students to make good use of the library to create a community of students who are connected not just by books or subjects but also in innovative ideas sharing.

He also urged teachers to look for videos which better illustrates some of the things they teach and through the internet students can learn how to create content or run small experiments.

He said the fibre broad band has been deployed to the school and on the strength of that, Huawei is paying for the monthly recurrent charges for a period of 5 years.

Mr Frank Obeng Wilson, the Headmaster of the school, expressed profound gratitude to MTN for the gesture extended to them which is going to help promote and enhance academic work in the school.

GNA