The National Information Technology Agency (NITA), is holding a brainstorming ICT stakeholder conference to review the draft content of two Legislative Instruments (LIs) for the NITA Act, 2008 (Act 771) and the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 (Act 772) which are being prepared to be put before Parliament.

The conference is meant to take the input of players in the ICT space to finetune the draft LIs.

The consultative conference will take place from Wednesday 5th July to 7th July 2023 at Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence (KACE), and the time is 11am – 4:30pm each day.

The two statutes, Act 771 and Act 772 are primary legislations whose corresponding operational subsidiary legal frameworks have not yet been passed.
These operational legal framework documents are critical for the effective operationalization /implementation of the primary legislation.

The combined legal ecosystem of the primary and the subsidiary legislation are critical for the effective development of the Government digital ecosystem, and the private sector, and the non-governmental digital ecosystem. These are also vital for the citizen digital ecosystem and change management orientations across the three ecosystems for policy goal attainment.

This would provide the certainty of planning, assurance and support for innovation and the growth of digital entrepreneurs and digital products in a manner which assures the transformation impact realization as a product of digitalization.

The Director General of NITA, Mr. Richard Okyere-Fosu expressed how important this exercise is, not only to the Agency and the government, but also to all players and consumers in the ICT sector. He said, “NITA has existed for 15 years without these key legislative instruments (LIs)., which are considered essential operational tools needed for NITA to function fully and effectively”.

He reiterated the importance of regulating ICT properly. He highlighted the huge opportunities and benefits that the nation will derive from the completion of the exercise. He said, “This is a journey we started with our stakeholders and it is important to seek their inputs to make the LI industry-friendly and industry-relevant”, Mr. Okyere-Fosu said.

The consultative workshop is open to all stakeholders in the ICT ecosystem (professionals, businesses, lecturers, students, etc.).