The new face of Joe Anokye, NPP’s telecommunication guru leading the NCA

He has not only been part of a strong team that transformed election management for the governing NPP, Mr Joe Anokye has injected energy and a fresh wave at the National Communications Authority (NCA).

At the helm of affairs as Director-General of the NCA, the engineer has streamlined activities to expand Ghana’s telecommunication infrastructure according to the government’s plan towards a digitised economy.

With bold measures, he has ensured sanity in the media space while deploying technologies to maximise government revenue from telcos.

The regulator has been proactive in licencing, fairness among industry players, quality control, consumer protection and the maintenance high standards.

Financial inclusion and the vision of a cashless society have boosted mobile money and other electronic financial products and services.

However, criminals have not spared targets, and increasing e-transactions has simultaneously given rise to online crime.

An essential measure for centralised data and a step towards fighting the menace is the fresh re-registration of SIM cards linked to the new National Identification Authority (NIA) system.

Mr Anokye shot to fame with a novel game-changing election centre that delivered two victories, and his reputation continues to skyrocket on the wheels of his expertise.

The former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) staff sends shivers down the spine of the government’s political opponents.

Within a period of an entire political cycle, the archrivals of the NPP failed to implement or replicate a simple yet effective solution superior to Mr Anokye’s magic wand.

Spotting a new and confident appearance, Mr Anokye is not resting on his oars towards executing the mandate of the NCA.

With the recent inauguration of the new NCA board, he is poised to carry the authority to higher heights with a team of other experts with vast knowledge of the telecommunication sector.

What is the track record of Mr Anokye?

Mr Joe Anokye is a Telecommunication Executive well vested in a wide range of Telecommunication Management, Telecommunication Networks and Cyber Security platforms in both public and private sectors.

He has over twenty-seven (27) years of hands-on technical and management experience across Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America.

From January 1997 to February 2016, Mr Anokye worked on several contracts at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland – the USA as a Senior Telecommunications Consultant, including supervising NASA’s Global Mission Telecommunication Wide Area Network (WAN) technical team.

During his time at NASA, Mr Anokye worked collaboratively with Telecom and Network engineers from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, German Space Operations Centre, Canadian Space Agency, Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization and many other national Space Programs like the Jet Propulsion Lab in California.

In recognition of his efforts, he received the 2007 Employee of the Year Award from the NASA Information Technology Services contract at Marshal Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville – Alabama, for outstanding technical services to the NASA Mission Telecommunications Network.

Mr Anokye was a premier Cisco Technical Instructor from 1999 through 2016 in Washington D.C, USA Metropolitan Area.
He taught and mentored many telecommunications, network, and systems engineers working with governmental and private institutions within the security, financial, and regulatory areas.

From 1999-2001, Mr Anokye did consulting work for Sprint Nextel (Managed Network Services). He was the Network Technical Engineer responsible for major accounts like KMART, Charles Schwab, UNICOR and Federal Prisons Industries, to name a few.

As the principal network architect, he developed the Telecommunications Master Plan from which a design was made to install the network infrastructure to support the ICT systems used for the Year 2011 Population Census of Bangladesh, a country with a population of over 140 Million.

In addition to the plan, Mr Anokye provided local and continuous technical support for the implementation in Bangladesh.

He was the Chief Technology Officer of JMAT Systems, LLC, an Information Services company established in 2007 and headquartered in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA offering Information Technology and Security Services to commercial, state, and Federal Government customers.

Within Africa, Mr Anokye has also worked on various Telecommunications Networks projects in Africa, primarily in Ghana and Liberia.

In Ghana, he has consulted for the Merchant Bank and in addition, trained on behalf of CISCO, staff of Ghana Telecom, Merchant Bank Ghana Ltd and the telecommunication wing of the National Security’s Bureau of National Communication.

Mr Joe Anokye was appointed as Acting Director-General of National Communications Authority on 24th January 2017 and confirmed on 15th January 2018.

A talented and accomplished Technology Executive who was awarded the Best Telecommunications Industry CEO of the Year 2017 (Public Sector), Mr Anokye has a proven record in leading technology transformation, improvement initiatives and aligning technology services with business objectives.

He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Ghana’s communication industry. He will be instrumental in efforts to expand Ghana’s communication network to support our developmental objectives.

Mr Anokye obtained his first degree in Geodetic Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and his MBA from the University of Maryland University College, USA.

In August 2019, he was awarded a certificate of completion for the Senior Executives in National and International Security Programme from the prestigious John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Executive Education.