Digital hub vision requires us to act now – MTN CEO
The ultimate vision of making Ghana the sub-region’s digital hub requires not just acting in that regard but also acting now – especially with the creation of a continental free trade area, Selorm Adadevoh, MTN Ghana’s CEO has said.
In MTN Ghana’s 25th anniversary climax speech that focused on digitisation, growth and infrastructure development – to position not just MTN Ghana but the whole economy on a strong digital foundation, Mr. Adadevoh spoke on the need for urgency across the board in realising the digital hub vision.
“We see Ghana as the most strategically-placed country to be a digital hub in the region, exporting skills and services as a means to diversify and accelerate GDP growth. This makes technology leadership in the region an imperative for Ghanaian SMEs to be relevant in an AfCFTA era. It is therefore incumbent on us to not only act, but to act now,” he said.
His speech, delivered in the presence of varied stakeholders in finance, policymaking, regulation, diplomacy, telecoms and technology, serves to galvanise support and engender collaboration among all players, with MTN looking to play its role via infrastructure development and general support to the broader ecosystem.
“Our ambition as a country to become a digital economy requires an even larger investment in technology infrastructure over the next three years. We see government’s primary role as ensuring an enabling environment that encourages and incentivises new infrastructure development and maximisation of existing assets (such as spectrum and fibre) for rapid and cost-effective injection of new capacity into our existing networks, while we build longer-term highways to carry the increasing demand.
“You can count on MTN Ghana’s commitment toward the future we all desire for our motherland. We project to invest over US$1billion in infrastructure and information systems over the next five years, starting this year, to support the vision of a digital Ghana.
“We recognise that our contributions toward infrastructure alone are not enough, and we also need to support broader ecosystem acceleration. As such, we have pledged our support for government’s ICT developmental efforts through the provision of an ICT Hub and developing a plan in partnership with government for establishing West Africa’s first Innovation City here in Ghana,” he said to rousing applause.
These, he believes, will help government expand ICT skills literacy to thousands of young and unemployed Ghanaians, promote SME digital innovation and new business idea incubation.
Mr. Adadevoh added that as part of the 25th anniversary, his outfit will build a modern 60-bed high-tech maternity and neonatal centre worth GH¢9million for the Keta Municipal Hospital. Also, in line with its ambition to develop ICT skills in youth with a focus on the girl child, MTN Ghana Foundation will invest GH¢1.2million in building a STEM robotics lab for the Mamfe Girls School and surrounding communities – for their sterling performance in the national and international robotics competition.
In an address, Senior Presidential Advisor Yaw Osafo-Maafo commended MTN Ghana for maintaining its position as a company that has impacted and facilitated social life for the past 25 years.
“MTN’s 25-year journey in Ghana has been marked by a significantly large footprint characterised by socioeconomic impact across the country. I am pleased to learn that MTN’s strategy going forward is to lead digital solutions for Africa’s progress – a key priority of which is to build the largest and most valuable platforms. These platforms will greatly benefit other industry players and become indispensable to government’s digitalisation ambitions in all sectors of the economy,” he said.
He hinted that approximately 10 to 15 percent of government revenue is lost through inefficiencies, theft and accounting schemes; hence, efforts to digitise the economy will improve revenue collection.
Making Ghana a digital hub
Government has prioritised digitisation as the key to aggressive and sustained economic development. Through policies, projects and programmes such as the introduction of Ghanacard, Digital Addressing System, GhanaPost, e-Pharmacy, Ghana.gov and several others, government is placing digital at the front and centre of its operations.
With this move, it seeks to attract investors from within Africa and the diaspora, in addition to foreign direct investment; thus making Ghana the continent’s digital hub. The moves are already bearing some fruit, with social media giant Twitter setting up its Africa operations in Ghana.