Business News of Friday, 27 October 2017

Source: starrfmonline.com

Ghana must embrace innovation – GCNet Boss

Dr. Nortey Omaboe, Executive Chairman of GCNet Dr. Nortey Omaboe, Executive Chairman of GCNet

The Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet) has indicated its willingness to continue to work with government to implement initiatives that will transform the country from a passive technology consumer to one of innovations.

The Executive Chairman of GCNet, Dr. Nortey Omaboe, who made the call, said the technology landscape was experiencing rapid transformation, which required the collaboration between governments and private sector technology experts to keep pace with the transformation.

Dr Omaboe said this at the launch of the e-Certificate platform on the e-Registrar portal by the Registrar-General’s Department in Accra on Thursday.

The e-certificate function on the e-Registrar portal platform is part of a number of on-line services, including the e-Shop which allows company searches, reservation of company names and the booking of marriage ceremonies amongst others. This is expected to promote the ease of doing business and improve business competitiveness while boosting business confidence and ensuring flexibility, transparency and accountability for Ghanaians.

Dr. Omaboe said the platform was one of many innovations, conceived, tested and fully operational which will significantly contribute to ease of doing business in the country.

He noted that the country’s foundations for rapid technological and economic advancement are being steadily put in place with the implementation of the National Identification project, the commencement of a digital addressing system and a fully automated business registration process.

“It is critical that these important technology systems be fully integrated within a seamless national technology ecosystem and GCNet fully commits unreservedly to play a leading role in this process”, he stated.

“We thank the Government for giving GCNet the opportunity to undertake this important responsibility, and we assure you that we stand ready to provide our expertise and professionalism in any of the other priority areas that urgently require similar deployments”, he added.

Launching the platform, Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia stressed the relevance of technology in the 21st century and expressed government’s commitment to leverage on technology to ensure digital transformation for economic growth.

“The importance of ICT cannot be overemphasised in this 21st Century and Ghana will leap frog other countries and catch up with the rest of the world,” he said.

The Vice President urged the Registrar-General’s Department to adopt innovative approaches, in order to maximise revenue for the government and ensure customer satisfaction.

The Registrar -General, Mrs. Jemima Oware, indicated that the e-Certificate platform forms part of the Department’s measures to leverage on the digital space to provide excellent services to clients.

Ms. Gloria Akuffo, Attorney General and Minister of Justice was optimistic that the new system would efficiently contribute to curbing corruption and address the issue of overcrowding at the premises of the Registrar-General’s Department.

The launch of the e-certificate is part of the bigger e-Governance project with part funding by the World Bank conceived a s a Design, Finance, Build, Operate and Transfer model to transform public sector service delivery.