Deputy Minister of Communications, George Andah
A Deputy Minister of Communications, George Andah, has said that the government is embracing change and creating a cyber-centric economy necessitated in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, through innovation, with a pursued agenda to transform the nation through digitalisation.
He said prudent management necessitated the government’s implementation of several initiatives such as the e-Parliament, Paperless Port System, e-Justice, e-Procurement, e-Passport, Mobile Money Interoperability, among others.
Speaking at the cybersecurity roundtable forum on the impact of COVID-19 on Ghana’s digitisation agenda in Accra yesterday, the Deputy Minister insisted that the initiatives have not only made services more accessible to the public, but have also made Ghana a hub of excellence in cybersecurity.
Mr Andah observed the impact of the pandemic, which has caused a paradigm shift in various aspects of the socio-economic lives of Ghanaians, challenging the resilience of the country’s cyber systems and that of the global community.
He noted that despite the discouraging statistics, digitalisation has proven to be the best option for business continuity, normalisation, access to educational facilities and materials, and critical operations, among other endeavours.
Mr Andah lamented the presence of cybercriminals online, which puts critical businesses at risk, and therefore underscored the need for urgent intervention to deal with the situation. This is because these businesses stand a chance to deprive their clients of critical services.
The Deputy Minister assured the gathering of the Communications Ministry’s commitment to working tirelessly to shoulder the huge responsibility of ensuring seamless interactions within the digital ecosystem.
Seeking guidance
Taking his turn at the event, the National Cyber Security Advisor, Dr Albert Antwi-Boasiako, admonished the public to seek for necessary guidance and advisory from the National Cyber Security Centre to prevent falling victim to cybercrimes.
According to him, so far, over 5,000 Ghanaians have been saved from being defrauded, via the Ministry’s incident reporting point of contact portal (PoC), between January and August, 2020.
Dr Antwi-Boasiako indicated that, as part of measures to combat the recent cybersecurity threats, his outfit has revised Ghana’s National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy to provide strategic guidance and roadmap for Ghana’s cybersecurity.
“We have developed the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) ecosystem, the establishment of a Security Operations Centre to secure the IT systems of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), as well as to introduce a Cybersecurity Bill which will further strengthen the legal regime for Ghana’s cybersecurity development as well as protection of Critical Information Infrastructure,” he added.
He reiterated the commitment and efforts of the centre to the continuous engagement with all relevant stakeholders to ensure the resilience of Ghana’s digital ecosystem.
Source: dailystatesman.com.gh/Paul Nyojah Dalafu
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