Accra, Oct. 27, GNA - Mr William Tevie, newly elected Director-General of the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) an Information Technology (IT) entity, on Wednesday met stakeholders in Accra to chart the way forward. The meeting comprised the Ghanaian Academic Research Network (GARNET), Ghana Network Operators Group (GhNOG) and the Internet Society (ISOC), who paid a courtesy on him.

Professor Mumuni Dakubu, interim Chief Executive Officer of GARNET said since Ghana's e-Government project would be operated, maintained, sustained, and extended by NITA and bring all higher education and research institutions together, the network expects the agency to help create a physical infrastructure of high speed within the National network framework.

He said GARNET would link up with other national research educational networks in Africa to form a Regional Research Education Network, which would have the capacity to liaise with other continental research bodies in the global quest for knowledge. Mr Ernest Brown, Chairman of GhNOG said there is the need to engage stakeholders in the formation of network policies to help bridge the gap between policy makers and personnel's on the field. He called on NITA to form a consortium to manage its infrastructure and bring all stakeholders on board to ensure the success of IT in Ghana.

Mr Eric Akumral, General Secretary of ISOC, expressed the need for stakeholders to be involved in policy formulation on IT in order to bring out the appropriate approaches that would contribute towards the attainment of a speedy growth of the technology in the country. Mr Tevie, said his outfit is ready to create a network that would link all stakeholders by the first quarter of next year. NITA is a public service institution established in 2008 as the Information Communication Technology (ICT) policy implementing arm of the Ministry of Communications and the agencies responsible for implementing Ghana's IT policies.

NITA is responsible for identifying, promoting and developing innovative technologies, standards, guidelines and practices among government agencies and local governments, It also ensures the sustainable growth of ICT via research and development planning and technology acquisition strategies to facilitate Ghana's prospect of becoming a technology-driven, knowledge-and value-based economy. 27 Oct. 10