Minister of Communications and Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has said Ghana is poised to use digital tools to accelerate the integration of the continent through trade.

She stated that the establishment of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Ghana formed part of efforts to make Ghana the digital gateway in Africa.

Speaking at the first global conference on cyber capacity building in Accra on Wednesday, November 29, 2023, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful noted that goverment's goal is to bridge the digital divide, facilitate digital transformation, and energize Ghana's economic growth.

AfCFTA, one of the flagship projects of Agenda 2063 is a high ambition trade agreement with a comprehensive scope that includes critical areas of Africa’s economy such as digital trade and investment protection, amongst other areas.

By eliminating barriers to trade in Africa, the objective of the AfCFTA is to significantly boost intra-Africa trade, particularly trade in value-added production and trade across all sectors of Africa’s economy.

AfCFTA, which came into effect in January 2021, is the largest free trade area globally, covering 55 African countries with a combined population of 1.3 billion people and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) exceeding $3.4 trillion.

This will help African economies build robust and more resilient economies to absorb any shock – internally or externally.

She further said Ghanaians have been encouraged to adopt Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

"Our major goal is to bridge the digital divide, facilitate our digital transformation, to energize Ghana’s economic growth. This is designed to establish Ghana as the continent’s digital gateway and it is no accident that we host Africa Continental Free Trade Area and are poised to use digital tools to accelerate the integration of the continent through trade," the Communications and Digitalization Minister said.

She added that, "We have launched interventions to bridge the digital divide and encourage citizens to adopt ICT. We are implementing a rural telephony that will connect over 4 million unserved and underserved citizens to voice and data services on a shared national platform and network."

Ursula Owusu-Ekuful asserted that government has taken deliberate steps to formalize the economy through digital initiatives such as mobile money interoperability, national ID card, rural telephony, among other initiatives.

According to her, the national ID card which serves as a single-purpose EID for all digital transactions helps to combat identity theft and crime, fraud and corruption.

SA/MA



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