Govt asked to help make broadband more accessible
The Broadband Communications Chamber (BBCC) has called on the government not to see the issue of the sale of licences of broadband as a source of revenue but a step towards making that service available to the wider community.
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According to the chamber, the benefits of higher broadband penetration to the economy and the people far outweigh the sale of licences; and, therefore, asked the government to implement measures that will rather enhance its usage across the country.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the BBCC, Mr Elorm Gustav Tamakloe, made the call when he answered questions from the media at a press conference in Accra last Monday to announce the country’s first comprehensive forum on broadband.
The forum, which is to be held in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications, will be hosted by the Ghana Forum on November 30 this year.
The event, dubbed Ghana Broadband Forum (BBGHF), aims at starting a national dialogue on how to revamp the country’s five-year-old broadband policy and to give proper direction to the country’s digital agenda.
Mr Tamakloe said the 2012 Broadband Policy and implementation strategy had lost the fundamentals in safeguarding the country’s socioeconomic future.
He stressed that the 2012 policy had lost the ability to meet the national broadband need and had also not been able to deliver fast and affordable broadband for Ghana, hence the need to take stock of it.
What to be discussed
Issues to be discussed at the forum will include challenges and barriers to creating a fully digitally enabled Ghana and the models that are proving successful elsewhere in the developing world.
It will be on how communities can engage in the decision-making process on the latest and emerging technologies for connecting people in rural and remote areas.
The chamber, after the forum, plans to present recommendations in guidelines and modalities for the complete review and update of the existing policy, taking into consideration new entrants and technologies in the broadband industry.
The United Nations challenge
Mr Tamakloe recalled that the United Nations (UN) Broadband Commission, last year in a report, issued a challenge to policy makers, the private sector and other partners to make the deployment of broadband infrastructure a top priority in their strategies to accelerate global development and progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He continued by saying that according to the report, broadband today is driving significant transformation in lots of sectors that are related to development, including health, food security, financial inclusion and education.
"It is, therefore, undeniable that broadband is playing and will continue to play a key role in achieving the UN SDGs," Mr Tamakloe noted.
Themed ‘Broadband: The catalyst for sustainable socio-economic development’, the event is expected to attract heavyweights in the broadband industry.
The BBCC was established to be an advocacy and lobbying group for the development and expansion of the broadband industry in line with the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development and the Government of Ghana's strategy of rapid broadband penetration and development, particularly in underserved and unserved areas.