The World Bank has approved $200 million to assist Ghana's government in expanding broadband access, improving the efficiency and quality of selected digital public services, and strengthening Ghana's digital innovation ecosystem in order to help the country create more jobs and economic opportunities.
Between 2014 and 2020, the digital industry in Ghana increased at a rate of 19 percent per year on average.
Ghana is already one of Sub-Saharan Africa's digital leaders, and the Digital Economy Diagnostic done in 2020 found critical obstacles that must be addressed in order to advance Ghana's digital transformation.
This recently authorised Ghana Digital Acceleration Project builds on past investments, including the current World Bank-supported e-Transform Ghana project, by supporting a regulatory change to create an enabling environment for digital transformation.
igital inclusiveness and innovation; improve governance and delivery of public services; and make data-driven digital agriculture more accessible to smallholders.
"Ghana's digital transformation, which will help drive a robust post-COVID-19 recovery, requires expanding digital access and adoption, improving digital public service delivery, and promoting digitally enabled innovation," said Pierre Laporte, World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
"All of these elements are covered by the Ghana Digital Acceleration Project, which will help advance the whole-of-government digital transformation agenda by accelerating the adoption of digital technologies and innovation by key productive sectors, such as agriculture, to foster an economy-wide digital transformation."
The initiative will aid in the development of the local digital entrepreneurship ecosystem, as well as the survival and growth of digital technology-enabled firms.
Supporting more effective innovation ecosystem coordination, enhanced service provision by Entrepreneur Support Organizations, expanding access to early-stage finance, and promoting advanced digital innovation capabilities would all help to achieve this aim.
By promoting private sector investment in last-mile connection in underserved rural regions, the Ghana Digital Acceleration Project is anticipated to expand access to mobile internet and broadband services for six million people.
Through regulatory updates and investments, it will also promote digital inclusion for women, people with disabilities, and rural communities. This will help Ghana's low-income citizens gain access to broadband and digital services, as well as close the regional digital divide.
"Public sector digitization under this operation will support the e-Transform project's ongoing digital public service delivery efforts, resulting in significant economic and development benefits for people, businesses, and the government, such as increased efficiency gains and time savings for society and the economy," said Maria Claudia Pachon, World Bank Senior Digital Development Specialist and project Task Leader.
"The digitalization of government services will result in considerable cost savings owing to reduced travel and processing times to access services, as well as transaction costs such as manual input mistakes, fraud, and corruption," says the report.
blogpay
