Related Documents

2001 Budget Justification

USAID Mission Director: Frank Young
USAID Mission Leland Coordinator and IED Contact: Avril Kudzi (akudzi@usaid.gov)

Illustrative USAID-managed IED Activities

Telecomm Policy/Access

• USAID and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are collaborating in partnership with the Ghana National Communications Authority (NCA), through a program of detailed workshops, videoconferences and on-going consultations on topics such as spectrum management.
• This effort was launched in May 2000, when five Ghanaian senior telecommunications regulatory and policy officials joined colleagues from Uganda and South Africa in an intense two-week training program on all facets of regulatory practice. The program was followed by visits with private sector entities such as the Corporate Council on Africa, the Global Information Infrastructure Commission and the National Telephone Cooperative Association. Additional efforts are currently in planning stages.

Training/Programs

• The Peace Corps has established a computer training and support center that helped an association of women artisans establish a web site through collaboration with PEOPLink, located at http://www.peoplelink.org/.
• The Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Sciences in Accra and the Navrongo Health Research Institute in northern Ghana have established Internet and voice communication through dedicated satellite dishes with the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and the World Health Organization in Geneva to facilitate a malaria vaccine development project.
• The connections were accomplished through collaboration among the National Library of Medicine, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the U.S. Navy, and USAID as part of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria.
• USAID is implementing a broad array of activities to extend the Internet and strengthen its use:
  • a program to join the World Bank, Schools-on-Line and the GLOBE program in linking schools
  • using the Internet to train local government officials; and
  • linking the field offices of the highly respected Electoral Commission in support of the successfully concluded national presidential election.

Other activities supportive of IED objectives

Telecomm Policy/Access

• A draft national communications policy has been developed by the Ghanaian National Information and Communications Committee (GNICC) which comprises representatives from the academic, research, government and private sectors and is coordinated by the University of Ghana, Legon, Balme Library.
• The Ghana Chapter of the Internet Society is promoting the expansion of the Internet in Ghana in all related areas including infrastructure, value-added services, content, use, and technical advancement. Particular attention will be placed on the Internet for reaching rural communities in a manner and language suitable for their participation (for more information go to http://www.isoc.org.gh/ or contact isoc@ghana.com).
• Data services, paging, and Internet services in Ghana have all undergone varying degrees of liberalization.
• The airwaves have been fully liberalized to support over 50 radio stations.
• Ghana's policy objectives in the telecommunications sector include increasing the overall quality of public services, improving public access in both rural and urban areas, expanding mobile coverage, managing fair telecommunications tariffs while maintaining reasonable user costs, generating employment opportunities in the telecommunications and IT sectors, and encouraging foreign investment in the broader telecommunications infrastructure.
• In Ghana there are currently two major telecommunications entities operating. Ghana Telecom, the national public telecommunications operator (30 percent owned by Telekom Malaysia), increased its number of lines to 165k lines by June 1, 1999, vs. 140k lines in 1998. There are currently 2,500 payphones in the country, vs. 480 payphones in 1995.
• Westel (US), a subsidiary of Western Wireless International, is the country's second fixed-line operator. Having signed an interconnection agreement with Ghana Telecom in January 1999, Westel's lines are currently operational. Westel and Ghana Telecom aim to launch mobile services within a few years of 1999.
• In mobile telephony, Mobiltel, AMPS operator, has around 15k subscribers.
• Celltel, a subsidiary of Hutchison (Hong Kong), also operates an AMPS network.
• Scancom, an operator of the Spacefon GSM network, has 9k subscribers.

Training/Programs

• The Ghana Government has indicated its support for promoting access to IT in all segments of society, particularly in the educational system.
• The World Bank's Tertiary Education Project provided a variety of support measures to Ghana's four universities and six polytechnics, including computers and improved management information systems to link the institutions' libraries by e-mail.
• Healthnet Ghana operates an e-mail service for the medical sector from the Medical Library at the University of Ghana.