Minister of Communication and Digitalisation, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has said, the Akufo-Addo administration is working tirelessly to ensure Ghana and its neighboring countries successfully ensure the establishment of the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) digital platform.

This she says would help to serve as standards that are incorporated by socially-conscious investors to evaluate the sustainability and societal impacts of investments in companies across the Africa continent.

In addition, she underscored that, such digital advancement would enable purpose-driven companies and organisations to address the challenges and opportunities presented by the wholesale shift in how value is defined, measured and shared across the value chain.

She made this known at the Global Standards Symposium (GSS-20) organized by the International Telecommunication Union which happened in Geneva in Switzerland.

“In Ghana, we have decided not to be naïve about the political economy of all these powerful shifts. Whilst we acknowledge the power of digital-enabled ESG standards to create a fairer, more prosperous, world, we also know that in the past we have, as a country and a continent, been marginalized in the creation of similar systems, such as the internet.”

She added, “We believe that our best bet is to partner with our continental neighbours to establish our own digital ESG platforms and networks. We are building systems that speak to our unique reality in the quest to build a fairer, more prosperous, continent. Ghana is a pioneer in the adoption of the AfCFTA Caravan platform, and its supply chain digitization derivative known as ProPer – the Proof of Origin and Product Electronic Registries.

“We are also championing the rollout of the Digital Green Corridor to unlock climate finance resources to green supply chains in the region. These initiatives, just like PanaBIOS, are fully endorsed by the African Union and we are determined to make them work.”

Digital Transformation Towards SDGs

Explaining the country's effort towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030 agenda, the Ablekuma West lawmaker said, government adhesion to the series of digital transformational drive is to improve the living condition of its citizens to a better standard.

Furthermore, she revealed government is building fibre to neighboring borders for robust framework to support digitalization to a better completion.

“For Ghana, we are intensifying our digital transformation drive with the ultimate goal of improving lives pursuant to the Sustainable Development Goals and we can only do this by ensuring that the required frameworks are in place. The Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, is playing a pivotal role in the development of a robust framework to support the digitalisation of the economy in a manner that benefits every citizen.

“But we are mindful of the fact that we cannot go it alone and have to build systems that are capable of being linked up to those developed by our neighbors. We are building fibre to our borders and are active in continental initiatives such as the Smart Africa Alliance. We are also determined to make the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) work, clear in our minds that digital technology holds the key to uniting our fragmented and uncoordinated trade infrastructure and systems on the continent.”

The fourth Global Standards Symposium (GSS-20) brought together stakeholders from governments, the private sector, the technical community, academia, and civil society, to discuss the role of international standards in enabling digital transformation and achieving the sustainable development goals.

The Global Standards Symposium (GSS) provided a high-level forum for discussion and coordination open both to ITU members and non-members.

This year's edition was chaired by H.E. Ms Nele Leosk, Ambassador-at-Large for Digital Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Estonia.

The theme of GSS-20 was “International standards to enable the digital transformation and achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs)”.