The Country Manager for Google Ghana, Estelle Akofio Sowah says Ghana is lagging behind in the Information Technology front. 

According to her, it is “very disappointing, considering the amount of connectivity at the coast of Ghana” of which the country is not taking advantage of to make the needed strides in information technology in the current competitive global village.

Estelle Kofio Sowah was speaking on JoyNews’s Tarzan’s Take on Multi-TV.  In her disappointment, she commended Internet Service Providers in the country who are still operating with the unfriendly business environment in Ghana.  She stated “I hold out my hat for all ISPs; it is not easy to run an IT business in this environment”.  Estelle particularly pointed out the unreliable and erratic power supply that businesses have to deal with among many other challenges as a private business operator.

This to her is very disappointing.  She indicated that within a matter of time, countries such as Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda that are least expected “will blow us out of the water” should Ghana continue in the way it handles issues relating to Information Technology.  Estelle acknowledged despite the political instability of those countries, which has denied them of the expected level of democracy to make them come to the lime light; they are far ahead of Ghana which ironically has enjoyed democratic governance for a reasonable period of time as against its neighbors.

The IT mogul stated that “government should be held responsible for what we find ourselves in today”.  She urged the government to give opportunity to young people in the country to contribute their quota in the little way they can in the IT world.  She is convinced the young ones are so much endowed with lots of IT knowledge and skills which must be harnessed for the general good in the competitive global village. 

According to her “if government faces any challenge with content developing, ask young Ghanaian volunteers to develop it, they know how to do it for you”