Report by: Ben LARYEA
The Chief Economist of Infrastructure, Vice Presidency of the World Bank Group, Ms. Vivian Foster has called for the establishment of a data governance systems saying it forms part of the effort for stakeholders in the data sector to use data effectively and efficiently.
According to her, Ghana have made giant strides in the digital space and have helped transform the economy in the past years thus the country must identify and collaborate well with agencies to ensure its misuse in all every working endeavour.
Speaking virtually at the launch of the World Development Report 2021 in Accra, she said Ghana for that matter government must support the institutions and develop regulatory frameworks to facilitate the gathering of data.
This workshop is part of a series of national events designed to raise awareness of WDR 2021 policy messages in the Western and Central Africa region and to promote dialogue with national policymakers and stakeholders of the data ecosystem and seeks to support national key stakeholders to on themes that are echoing the opportunities and challenges of the country with the Data for Better lives agenda and to exchange on in country operationalization.
The launch themed, “Leveraging Data to Foster Development: Where Does Ghana Stand?” challenges the country to scale up data infrastructure and skills to enable the usage of requisite data to inform policy makers to address and build resilient economy for socio-economic growth and development.
She applauded the country for the frantic efforts made by government to roll out initiatives to tax digital businesses and was quick to mention the electronic transaction levy as a vivid example.
In her remarks, the Minister of Communications and Digitisation, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful disclosed that her ministry is fervently engaging stakeholders in the digital value chain on strategies as well as the structures in creating a data hub for effective governance machinery.
According to her, the ministry is further working on a data exchange hub to provide the needed and the requisite data for gathering and sharing across the public and the private sector for operative activities.
“Government primary focus is to establish a vibrant platforms and network to leverage the usage of data in every working space”, she explained.
Contributing to a panel discussion, the Government Statistician of the Ghana Statistical Service, and Professor of Economics, University of Cape Coast, Samuel Kobina Annin, said data supports the socio-economic growth and development of the country and urged government institutions to frequently share data to help scale up issues in the governance of the country.
For her part, the Executive Director, Ghana Data Protection Commission, Ms. Patricia Adusei-Poku called for collaboration among stakeholders in the data sector and urged all to share among each other for development purposes, adding that the forum is timely and will put Ghana as the digital hub in the sub-region.
Source: www.thenewindependentonline.com
