The acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Telecoms has been awarded the Young ICT Ambassador at the 7th Ghana Information Technology and Telecoms Awards for his contribution to the telecom industry.

Derek Laryea, was the Head of Research and Communications at the Telecom Chamber and to take over the daily running of the Chamber following the exit of the first CEO, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo.

The award, according to the organisers, took cognizance of the role played by Mr. Laryea who before joining the Chamber worked as a Reputation Research Administrator of Scancom (MTN) Ghana, where he was actively involved in the coordination, implementation and evaluation of MTN’s community-based projects and social marketing campaigns.

Over the last five years, he has been with the Telecoms Chamber, he has been an active member within the telecoms industry negotiating and helping to direct telecommunications policy, legislation and regulation, and pursuing research towards the development of telecommunications in Ghana.

Mr. Laryea currently serves as the Taxation Working Group Head for the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) an NGO which is lobbying governments to facilitate improvement in ICT policies/regulations that will enable the private sector to be incentivized to help spread Internet coverage for use by all at affordability rate.

Mr. Laryea who holds a Masters in Financial Management from Coventry (UK), is currently a member of the Institute of Directors (IOD) and a Regulatory Impact Assessment Professional.

The awards recognized the efforts by individuals and institutions playing an outstanding role within the Telecoms and the broader information technology industry.

The ceremony which had MTN picking up 10 awards, the biggest haul of the night, was powered by InstinctWave.

The awards represent the most respected accolade in the industry, celebrating excellence in innovation, product development and service delivery.

This year the awards expanded to recognize various government agencies deploying ICT to improve service delivery such as the Electricity Company of Ghana, Bank of Ghana among others.

According to Akin Naphtal CEO of InstinctWave, “more categories were created for government ministries agency and department to promote and reward government efforts on digitization of the economy.”