The Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, has emphasised the need for successive governments to allocate more resources to bolster the Information Services Department.

According to him, successive governments have not invested adequately in the Information Services Department (ISD), the information dissemination agency of the Ministry of Information.

He made this call during the GIMPA Law Alumni Association Launch & Public Lecture held on September 20, 2023.

Addressing attendees at the event, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah highlighted a longstanding challenge where governments have not invested adequately in the Information Services Department.

He stressed that this issue must be taken more seriously to enhance the department's capacity to disseminate crucial information effectively across various communities.

“The challenge over the years is that successive governments have not invested enough in the information services department. It is something that we need to take more seriously and invest in so that they have the capacity to go to every village, community, wherever and get the message to the ground.

“Because if you assume that doing one press conference in Accra means that the person in Hamiley has understood it in the local language then we are deceiving ourselves. But what are the tools and devices that we are making available so that we can turn that message and press conference from say EDG and PDS, we can turn it into the Sissala language for it to get to the person on the ground. So that misinformation and disinformation will be cured,” he said.

He noted that the Information Services Department plays a pivotal role in ensuring effective ‘below the line communication’ at the grassroots level.

“The information service department is the one that helps us to answer that question very well. Because the information service focuses on what we call ‘below the line communication’, on the ground.

“Above the line will use a lot the mass media, social media, digital tool. There is what we call the visibility line and above the line is what everybody can see. That is what you see on television, you hear on radio, see on billboards etc., that is above the line. Then we have what we call below the visibility line, where you see on ground communication going on. Maybe in a church, school, mosque, under the baobab tree etc., how do we gather and using the local cultural nuances to do the necessary communication,” he added.

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