Ghana’s Cybersecurity Ranked Third In Africa
A Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) report has ranked Ghana as having the third most secure cyber environment for communications.
Since its inaugural edition in 2015, the GCI report has been a trusted appraisal of cybersecurity in countries as well as of initiatives in the international telecommunications sector.
This year, the 2020 report released on June 29 said Ghana had scored 86.69%, just behind Mauritius and Tanzania, on five criteria.
The criteria include Legal Measures, Technical Measures, Organisational Measures, Capacity Building, and International Cooperation.
Previously, Ghana had placed 11th, which makes the 3rd position at the end of 2020 a “major leap”, according to a statement released by the Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor. The country’s metric score of 86.69% is also an improvement on 2017’s 32.6% and 2018’s 43.7%.
“The achievement is proof of the government’s commitment to developing the country’s cyberspace to be secure and resilient for a sustained digital transformation,” the press release from the Cybersecurity Advisor Dr Albert Antwi-Boasiako, said.
Dr Antwi-Boasiako also cited the work of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, headed by Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, working with the members of the National Cyber Security Inter-Ministerial Advisory Council (NCSIAC) and the National Cyber Security Technical Working Group (NCSTWG) as the reason for the progress that has been made.
He added that Ghana merited the GCI placement due to, among others, the revision of the National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy to provide a national direction and implementation plan for Ghana’s cybersecurity development, as well as the passage of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038) to provide a legal basis for its cybersecurity development.
The cybersecurity capo also revealed that Ghana’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) would soon become the Cyber Security Authority (CSA).
This is part of an ongoing commitment from the Communications Ministry and other stakeholders to ensure that “various digitalisation interventions rolled out are secured”.
Cybersecurity in Ghana
Awareness of the need for stronger cybersecurity in Ghana has grown with the democratisation of cyberspace in the country. This has been marked by national strategies revealed by the last two governments.
The use of cyberspace and telecommunications networks to commit crime continue to pose serious challenges to law enforcement and security agencies. With the development of ICT and telecommunications services, the network environment has become the environment of choice for organised crime.
In 2019, the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation pointed out at an NCSC retreat that “[s]tate and non-state actors need to collaborate to effectively tackle cyber threats and attack. These include cooperation among government agencies, intelligence agencies, private sector actors, academia, among others in fighting cybercrime”.
In pursuance of the above, Ghana’s lack of a dedicated and sustainable budget to fund cybersecurity activities was a major impediment.