Member of Parliament(MP) for Effutu and Leader of Ghana’s Delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament, Hon. Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, has described as troubling, the low access to the internet across Africa.
According to him, access to the internet and growth of Information Technology across Africa is still a major challenge in the Continent and leaders must do all possible to ensure change.
Alexander KwamenaAfenyo-Markin was speaking at the opening of the Meeting of the Joint Committee on Political Affairs, Peace, Security and African Peer Review Mechanism, Legal Affairs and Human Rights, and Telecommunications and Information Technology of the ECOWAS Parliament yesterday at Winneba.
He averred that we live in the age of revolutionary Technology and information Technology; an age “where doctors perform invasive but critical life-saving surgeries remotely with the aid of high-speed internet, computers and advanced medical tools, equipment and gadgets.”
He also noted that this is the period where advances in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have made it possible for some countries to deploy Robots, instead of human judges to make accurate and binding judicial decisions in the Courtroom, but situation in Sub-Saharan Africa is sad.”
He said: “In the part of the world where the true potential of telecommunications and Information Technology is being harnessed, citizens have easy access to computers and the internet. For example in the US 87 per cent of individuals have access to a computer in their households. The figure in Finland is 93 per cent.”
He stressed that the story across Africa is troubling as in 2019 only 7.7 per cent of households on the continent of Africa were estimated to have a computer at home, adding that “Our school children rarely use computers, and in many schools, pupils learn about computers without the benefit of neither seeing nor operating them.”
“Figures show that there were more than 3.8 billion mobile internet subscribers globally representing 49% of the world’s population. However, mobile internet adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2019 stood at 26%. Indeed Sub-Saharan Africa is home to almost half of the global population not served by a mobile broadband network.”
He said much is needed to be done to reverse the trend and make life easier for the people.
On Security, Hon. Afenyo-Markin noted that activities of terror organizations continue to create a huge sense of insecurity in some parts of the region, worsened by the rising spate of pirate attacks on ships travelling along the West African coasts.
He said, it behoves on ECOWAS Parliament to help citizens feel safe by finding sustainable solutions to the common problems they face in the areas of Technology and Security.
On his part, Hon A.S.K. Bagbin, Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament also believes that in recent times, ICT services have become an indispensable tool in the development of every facet of our society, whether in the Health, Education, Agriculture, or Trade and Industry sectors.
He averred that telecommunication plays an increasingly important role in enabling the participation and development of people in communities and nations disadvantaged by geography, whether in rural areas of developing nations or in the global society and economy.
Hon. Alban Bagbin also said, telecommunications and information technology is fast becoming a driving force in today’s digital ecosystem by seamlessly connecting communities, businesses and governments and, it is therefore more imperative now than ever to deploy the use of telecommunications and information technology to advance all sectors of one’s economy and also promote the development of the sub-region.
“ICT does offer us new opportunities to better manage conflicts and build peace especially at the local levels of our societies,” he said, adding that there is the need to promote inclusivity and enhance the integrity of the electoral processes by adopting appropriate technologies in the election management process.
Ghana, he said, introduced the Biometric Verification Devices, used to capture the biometric details of the electorates to reduce multiple registrations and multiple voting and that beyond assisting in conflict prevention, participatory data collection and processing tools, ICT also provides avenues for alternative discourse or community engagement that promote peace and foster non-violent attitudes and behaviours.
Hon A.S.K. Bagbin indicated that the deployment of telecommunication and information technology tools provide the judiciary the opportunity to dispense justice in a more accessible, transparent, efficient, timely, and accountable manner, hence the introduction of the Electronic Case Management System by the Judiciary in Ghana.
“Mr. Speaker, to achieve regional development through the use of ICT tools, there is the need to address concerns regarding mobile roaming services in the sub-region. Technology and ICT are indeed very useful and critical in propelling our sub-region forward, whether in the area of peace, development, education, health delivery, agriculture, etc,” he said.
He also touched on Security and enumerated that the Sub-region is confronted with various challenges such as drug trafficking, child trafficking, proliferation of and trafficking in small arms, organised crime, money laundering and terrorism and that Cybercrime and the insecurity in the maritime space in the Gulf of Guinea, are issues that require immediate attention.
He said the violation of electoral processes in the conduct of elections has also been a major source of conflict leading to violence and tensions in some countries in the sub-region.
“It is sad to note that these tensions are occasioned by challenges related to non-consensual constitutional reviews, non-compliance with presidential term limits among others. The refusal to accept election results by sections of the society and the abuse of social media to create tensions and divisions are matters of grave concern.”
He charged leaders to mechanisms and frameworks for promoting political dialogue and peace building in such countries.
