EdTech Monday: ICT professionals lament barriers to technology, internet penetration in Ghana

Speaking on the May edition of EdTech Monday on the Citi Breakfast Show, personnel from organizations such as the Africa Center for Economic Transformation, MTN Ghana, Center for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling (CENDLOS), and Girl Code Africa highlighted a number of challenges they face in their service delivery across the country.

For Freda Yawson from the Africa Center at Economic Transformation, the lack of guaranteed investment opportunities in the country and the African continent as a whole are factors that discourage persons from venturing into opportunities that will enhance ICT and internet penetrations on the continent.

“One of the things that we get a lot in the private sector is that there are a couple of things that we need and when they come into the country?

The second thing is the projects that entrepreneurs embark on, are they really profitable, and will they get their monies back.

There are perceived risks in the African investment ecosystem and there are no opportunities by governments to guarantee my investments in case my investments go down and that is discouraging.”

“Partnerships between state and non-state actors are really crucial in providing the investment needed to get ICT infrastructure expanded and also e-content created, and this is where I will say the Center for National Learning comes in because a lot of our interventions have come about not only from the state but also from non-state actors such as UNICEF, UNESCO, and Plan Ghana.”

Madam Safi also suggested that: “In order to foster or ensure inclusion and equity in access to ICT, I advise that we make policies that include the needs of the less privileged, and the needs of rural folks