LAGOS: Ghana's National Communications Authority (NCA) and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) announced late Thursday that the two sides had completed a project aimed at assisting in the development of a five-year telecom strategic plan for the country. According to a joint statement, the plan's objectives “include ensuring effective market competition, streamlining spectrum regulation, improving consumer relations and accelerating broadband communications in Ghana.” The CTO said the plan will help the NCA manage Ghanaian ICT sector growth, adding that the national mobile penetration rate had grown from 0.67 percent to 81 percent over the past decade. “It is a positive step for Ghana and one that will enable investment and better telecom services to be provided under a specific plan of action for the future,” said Naytar Williams, a NCA official, in an email to Bikyamasr.com. CTO, in a posting, attributed the slow development of Internet and broadband usage in Ghana “to the limited penetration of fixed line phon¬es. Though the proliferation of mobile networks has helped increased mobile internet penetration in Ghana to 22 percent, the number of broadband users is still low when compared with more developed countries.” Ghana's Ministry of Communications and NCA have stated they would like to see an increase in the number of users in order to reap the socio-economic benefits that broadband brings. The new proposals should assist in the training of officials in order to better engage with telecom operators in the country. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/tSqz1 Tags: CTO, Ghana, NCA, Strategy, Telecom Section: Tech, West Africa
