Representatives from across Africa will converge in Ghana’s capital, Accra, for the continent’s preparatory meeting for the International Telecom Union (ITU) World Telecommunications Development Conference slated for March-April , 2014 in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Ghana’s Communications Minister Dr. Edward Omane Boamah says the meeting is to “help African countries adopt common positions and build consensus ahead of a major worldwide conference which is taking place next year in March and April.”

He said it was frequently important for African countries to take unified stance on critical matters which affect national development such as Information and Communications Technologies because the destinies of all African countries were interlinked.

“It is not helpful for us to attend the World Telecom Development Conference in 2014 and have Francophone countries pushing a particular position, Anglophones pushing another…, that kind of confusion will not be in the best interest of Africa,” he asserted.

Dr. Boamah told Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Monday that the three-day event will among other things discuss cyber security, broadband, public-private partnership to make ICT infrastructure available to all, and the regulatory and governance systems in Africa.

Commenting specifically on the subject of migrating from analogue television broadcasting to digital broadcasting, the Minister said many African countries were committed to the move even of the pace at which different countries were moving towards this goal varied widely from country to country.

He said discussions were underway in the ECOWAS region on harmonizing the technologies of the various countries such that citizens could use their television sets in countries other than their country of origin.

The proposal regarding this would be put on the table for further discussions at the meeting, he said.

Veering off from the conference to speak on other matters of local concern, Dr Boamah said mobile phone subscribers who receive unsolicited text messages from telecom operators now have the opportunity to unsubscribe.

“If people are still receiving these messages when they exercised their right to opt out, their first port of call should be their service providers; if after you have made that contact it is still not being respected, you must escalate it and let the National Communications Authority know,” he stated.

He read out 0302686549 as the phone number on which to reach the NCA and if that fails, complainants can send electronic mail to complaints@nca.org.gh.

Not all the text messages are however blamed on telecom service providers; they are sent by what he called value added service providers who use the telecom companies to market products and services for companies and individuals.

According to him, some of the value adding marketing companies had been registered with the NCA which has instructed the telecom companies to stop dealing with unregistered companies.

Even with the registered companies, “…per a particular subject, you are not supposed to be receiving these messages more than three messages within certain frequencies; Sundays are completely out of the question; you are not supposed to be receiving these messages on Sundays,” he stressed.

The Communication Minister said the conference will also be used to market Ghana’s chocolate, shea butter and other products that unique to the country.