Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr Ken Ashigbey, has bemoaned the high cost of smart devices in Ghana.

According to him, the gender gap in the usage of smartphones can only be bridged if it is affordable on the market.

Speaking at the quarterly knowledge forum held in collaboration with GSMA in Accra on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, he stressed that the prices are currently above the level of most women and girls.

Dr Ashigbey said, “The time has come for us to drive the cost of smart devices down because if we are going to get women, girls, and everybody actually involved in using these services, the price point at which we’re currently getting devices should not because the levels that they currently are are such that they’re way beyond the reach of a lot of our people.”

He further stated that after this problem is solved, e-services must also be in local languages for persons outside the literacy bracket to be able to decode the messages put across.

The CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications indicated that technology must be designed to help translate these e-services into local languages to help women and girls especially those in rural areas.

“In terms of the language that we use for most of these e-services, they are still in English and so when we have my grandmother for example in Tsiame for example, who cannot read English and because of the issues of cost as well, she has a feature phone, how is she going to do the USSD things? We need to find a way in which our technology people will be able to provide these services in the local languages not even in text but in video, in audio and all of that,” he said.

He added that, “So that if my grandmother wants to buy or sell something, she can speak to the device and the device will be able to tell it’s actually her from her voice, her face and all of that.”

Dr Ken Ashigbey was speaking on the theme, “E-government services: Enhancing women’s access and usage.”

SA/NOQ

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