The World Bank Vice-President for Africa, Dr Hafiz Ghanem, has advised Ghana to work towards achieving a 100 per cent Internet access.
He said that was a necessary vision and dream for the country because the digitisation of the Ghanaian economy was extremely important, noting that across Africa, access to the Internet was only 21 per cent.
Dr Ghanem, who gave the advice during a meeting with the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, at the Jubilee House, expressed the readiness of the World Bank to support Ghana’s digitisation drive.
Among the strategies, Dr Ghanem said, were investment in infrastructure, modernisation of the regulatory and competition framework to bring down cost and build capacities which, he said, were to make Africa the startup continent.
He said “using technology in education and health care is what is happening all over the world and so it is a big area we would like to support.” Dr Ghanem commended the government for the introduction of free Senior High School, saying “you have done a lot on the macroeconomic side but we think that your decision to provide free SHS is an important one.
It is something we would like to support because we have projects in the education sector and we would like to do even more and see how we can ensure access to quality education across Africa.
He said the economy was also doing very well, with a growth rate around six per cent and that it was important that Ghana’s development continued and even accelerated.
Dr Bawumia in response outlined the various programmes and policies the government had been pursuing since assuming office and said, “President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has set a vision for the country to help to grow this economy to make it a modern prosperous economy such that Ghana could move beyond aid.
Source:fiilafmonline/Graphic
