WB gives $40m for Ghana's ICT programme

The World Bank Group has approved a $40 million loan to Ghana, to support the implementation of selected components of the government?s Information and Communications Technology, (ICT) for Accelerated Development Policy. This policy was completed a few years ago and adopted into Ghana's poverty reduction strategy as a key framework for growth. The Bank Group's Assistance is, therefore, expected to provide the requisite resources to accelerate policy implementation. A press release issued in Washington D.C, on Tuesday, August 1, noted that Ghana was one of the first countries in Sub-Sahara Africa to undertake a programme of liberalisation in the telecommunications sector in the mid 1990s. "Since then, significant improvements have occurred which have led to the growth of the ICT sector, particularly over the past five years. The result is an unprecedented explosion in overall telephone penetration, from 4.7 per cent in 2003 to 20 per cent in June 2006." Most of this growth the release noted, is attributed to the mobile sector which has grown from zero to about four million within the past 10 years. more...

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