Chief Executive of Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey has called on the government to accelerate access to technology in remote areas in the country.

Speaking on the PM Express on Wednesday, Dr Ashigbey stated that government should ensure that the last man is covered in the digitalisation agenda.

He added that there is also the need to ensure that the country goes beyond the 50% internet penetration.

“If you look at education, the whole digitalisation thing that has happened and the schools that are getting free wi-fi and all of that so if you are a school that you are in a space that you don’t have 3G, then immediately you are disadvantaged so we need to accelerate access to make sure that a lot more of these people have these tools so that they would realy be able to use it,” he said.

“It’s an imperative without that [digitalization] there is very little we will be able to do. The gap between us and the West is so wide and if we are going to keep on going analogue whiles they go digital, 5G is going to come and all of that and we don’t follow it up, we are going to be left behind,” he added.

His comments come against the backdrop of a public lecture held by Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on Ghana’s digital economy and how the government has used digitization to achieve many milestones, including addressing social and economic issues in the country.

The lecture, which happened at Ashesi University, was centered on the topic “Using digitalization to transform an economy – The Ghana story”.

Dr. Bawumia, who spearheaded the government’s digitalisation drive, explained the government’s vision and measures undertaken so far to realise the digitalisation agenda.

A number of them include babies receiving a National ID number, Ghana Card becoming an e-passport by next year, the introduction of digital currency, e-cedi among others.

According to him, the major challenge facing digitalization that ought to be addressed is the education of the masses.

He said this needed to be done so that the public would be equipped to follow the digital trend.