Dr Nii Narku Quaynor, a top African IT expert, has called on Ghana's new parliament to formulate cyber- related laws to define and regulate the relationship between the Information Technology (IT) sector and other sectors of the economy.

"It is time for this country to have cyber-related laws, not only to define the relationship between IT and other sectors, but also to regulate activities in the IT sector itself," said Quaynor, executive director of Network Computer Systems (NCS), the pioneer internet service provider in Ghana.

"Moreover, there has been much debate on what to do for and with our IT sector - the debate is enough - let us do it now."

Quaynor was delivering a lecture at the 52nd annual New Year School, organised by the Institute of Adult Education of the University of Ghana in Accra to form national agenda toward greater participation in the global economy.

He said though the availability and use of IT in Ghana is relatively low, the fast rate at which it is growing calls for IT-related laws to protect the interests of both IT service providers and users.

"For instance, there must be a legal provision on whether electronic mail (e-mail) could be used as evidence in court," he said.

"Such laws are also necessary to prevent unscrupulous characters from illegally cashing-in on the bottle-necks in the sector."

Quaynor said, in formulating such laws, however, Parliament must be careful not to make legal provisions to control IT content, which by virtue of internet, has assumed international status."

At the regional level, the African IT governing body has initiated steps to evolve a blueprint on the current state and expectations of African countries from the IT sector as a guide to policy makers in member countries to fashion out policy within the framework of a common goal.

Quaynor said since 1996, telephone subscription in the country has more than doubled from less than 100,000 to about 200,000, adding that though it is still relatively low as compared to the population, the trend indicates a fast growth rate.

"Currently there are only 200 cyber (Internet) cafes in the country and about 31,000 persons and organisations connected to the Internet through website addresses.

"Out of the 31,000 website operators, 1,000 are connected to the .gh domain name which has a local reach only and 30,000 are on the ghana.com domain with an international reach," he said.

This, Quaynor noted, is an indication that there is relatively very little information of value from Ghana and Africa as a whole on the Internet. He said the traffic flow ratio of electronic information to and from African countries is about "one is to four".

He called on individuals, state and private organisations and the public to develop all kinds of content in the form of electronic information to improve Ghana and Africa's share of data on the information super highway.

He attributed the low level of use of the IT in Africa to the high cost of connectivity, explaining that whereas it costs 500 dollars a month to be connected to the net in developed countries, it costs 2,000 dollars for IT service providers in Africa.

Prof. John B.K. Aheto of the University of Ghana urged the public to encourage Internet service providers by developing volumes of content to create more websites to enable them to recoup and re-invest their initial capital to expand their service nation-wide.

"This way, we will stand a better chance as individuals and as a nation to benefit from the opportunities of globalisation," he said.

He appealed to the new government to reduce tariffs on imported IT-related items to encourage the growth of the sector locally.