The Ghana Open Data Portal (GODP) has been officially opened to the public to enable them access government data from Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

A statement by GOPI copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said the portal was built on the Open Government Platform, a cataloguing platform jointly developed by the United States and Indian governments for open government data.

It said the platform was deployed by the GODI technical team with the Web Foundation as advisors.

The statement explained that the portal showcased over 80 government datasets from the Ghana Statistical Service, Ghana Health Service, Ministry of Education, National Communications Authority, National Road Safety Commission, Public Procurement Authority, Ministry of Finance and many others.

It stated that the GODI project began in January 2012, after the late President John Atta Mills signed Ghana on to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in September 2011.

The statement said Alhassan Azong, Minister of State at the Presidency responsible for Public Sector Reform chairs the National Steering Committee for OGP – Ghana.

“As a member country of OGP, Ghana is expected to produce an Action Plan by December 2012,” it said.

The statement said three zonal public consultations were held in October 2012, in the Northern, Ashanti and Central regions, which culminated in a National Forum held in Accra, on November 7, 2012 to validate the draft Action Plan.

It said the GODI project was one of the thematic areas being considered in developing Ghana’s Action Plan under the OGP -Ghana.

The statement cited Dr. Nii Quaynor, co-chair of the GODI Steering Committee, as saying; “government is focused on creating an ecosystem of open data where government, civil society and software developers will interact continuously to ensure that information on both demand and supply sides of the open data is optimized.

“The portal will help Ghana improve upon its policy-making ability and help government provide better services to the citizenry,” he added.

The statement said GODI, in collaboration with the World Bank Institute, Google and the African Media Initiative, organized a Data Journalism Bootcamp, in Accra, to train journalists, software developers and civil society to develop applications on open data ahead of the official launch of the Portal by December 2013.

It said Mr. William Tevie, GODI Project Director and Director General of the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) said the portal was a Beta version which would enable the public to download government data for re-use and that the

GODI Technical Team would continuously improve the portal by introducing instant visualization of data and user-friendly applications that would make it easy for citizens to understand government data and send feedback.