The National Information Technology Agency (NITA) has signed a memorandum of understanding with four organisations to develop a portal to provide information on the government and economy in support of the Ghana Open Data Initiative (GODI).
The four organisations are the Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services (CERSGIS), ODEKRO, Cell Afrique and the Ghana Library Authority.
The Ghana Library Authority will facilitate access to the GODI portal, while the three other organisations will complement the efforts of the NITA to develop the applications for the data on the portal to make it easy for the public to understand and use.
The NITA is the implementing agency under the Ministry of Communications of the e-Government project.
The GODI, which was launched in 2012, creates a platform through its Open Data Portal to make large amounts of government and economic information available and accessible for public use.
The Director General of the NITA, Mr William Tevie, signed for NITA, while the chief executive officers and representatives of the various organisations signed on behalf of their entities.
The objectives
Mr Tevie explained that the GODI was intended to make government data available to the public to promote efficiency, transparency and accountability in governance.
Beyond its use to promote transparent governance, Mr Tevie said the open data was also to facilitate economic growth by means of the creation of mobile and web applications for the global markets.
Scheduled to be completed this year, Mr Tevie said the project also aimed at developing an open data community involving the government of Ghana, civil society organisations, industry, academia, media and the citizenry to interact with one another and to create a sustainable open data ecosystem.
“Open data is a concept that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish without the restrictions of copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control,” he explained.
Currently, Mr Tevie indicated the portal had 475 datasets categorised in various sectors such as political, legal organisational and health.
The organisations pledged to work efficiently with the NITA to promote the open data initiative.
