Some researchers have called on the National Communication Authority (NCA) to introduce some form of regulatory intervention onto the local internet market to ensure effective development of public internet access venues (PAVs) in Ghana.

According to them, the internet market presently appears unregulated and therefore should be checked to help it expand and provide improved quality service.

Dr Godfred Frimpong, the lead researcher, together with his team, Paul Boadu and Masahudu Fuseini, in their new study published for the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial (CSIR), dwelt on the “Deployment and Utilization of Public Access Venues: The Case of Ghana.”

The study was part of the Global Impact Study on Access to Public ICT for five countries namely Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Ghana and Philippines. The Technology and Social Change Group of the Information School, University of Washington, Seattle USA led the study.

PAVs form a critical gateway for developing skills among the public and they offer many people their first experience with computers and the internet in a country.

In Ghana, the study carried out in Greater Accra, Ashanti and Western regions, noted that majority of the PAVs were privately-owned and set up profit reasons with limited computers (between 6 and 15). Also, most PAVs had small physical structures with little or no rest places for those in queues.

“The small structures normally resulted in overcrowding, which made the venues very hot during the day and also noisy for serious users. The situation is aggravated by lack of air conditioners to reduce the heat in the internet cafes.”

It found also that the major source of finance for PAVs was the ploughing back of profits or service fees, which has a negative effect on the scale of expansion activities since such source of funding had limitations.

“Computer and internet skills training should form part of the non-formal education programme of the Ministry of Education. In this case, while the participants are gaining some competence in numeracy and literacy, they will at the same time be acquiring functional skills to use computers and the internet.”

It urged the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC) to also expand its training programmes in computer skills through partnerships to cover as many people as possible.