The Ag Director General of National Information Technology Agency (NITA), Mr. David Gyewu has encouraged all the stakeholders in the ICT industry to form one solid group to work for the sustainability of the industry and their common interest.

Mr. David Gyewu urged the stakeholders to do away with the individual interest groups in the ICT industry and come together as one body to champion the course of ICT, adding, this will also afford them the opportunity to have representation on the Board of NITA which in the long round will help them to have a say in any decision the Agency will take in the area of IT.

Explaining the Electronic Transactions Compliance Regulations that the government is working on it to the gathering during IT stakeholders forum organized by NITA in Accra, the Ag Director General further hinted that the government and for that matter NITA is giving the industry players to come out with their own IT group or Association but if they fail to do so, then the Agency will have no option than to go by what the law says.

“We are leaving it to you to form the group so that your member could be part of the Board of NITA but if you fail to do so, then NITA will apply the other option it has in relation to the law”, he stated

Mr. David Gyewu explained the rationale behind the forum, saying, the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 Act 772 Section 88 says, there is hereby established an Industry Forum which shall be a platform to bring the industry together from time to time to discuss matters of common interest that relate to the industry, the Agency may designate an industry body to be the Forum by notifying, however, until the Agency designates a body, the Agency has the obligation to facilitate the meeting of the industry to perform the functions of the Forum.

He further lead the stakeholders at the forum through things that the Agency is doing and will do; these include development of a PKI system, 660 rack Tier III capacity Data Center and G-Cloud, development of appropriate regulations to give effect to the Act regulatory ICT space in Ghana, Open Data policy and Data exchange hub, Government enterprise agreements e.g. Microsoft, (Oracle, Dell) to come and implement Business Strategy to become a responsive and effective partner and regulator.

Mr. David Gyewu said, lack of sustainable funding and legacy debts are the huge problem the Agency was facing when he took over as Ag Director General of the Agency but he was not perturbed because when there is a will, there is a way.

The Ag. Director General outlined some of the Operations of the Agency in the area of Infrastructure (network O&M and DC partnership, GovNet connectivity project, Cyber Security & SOC/CERT ), Services revamp (eGov Online Portal, GEPP, Smart workplace- messaging, collaboration & document Management, G-Cloud) , Human & technology resources, Skills and training.