 Welcome to WSIS Forum 2018. I am delighted to be joined by Mrs Ursula Oussu-Ekufor, who is Minister of Communications in Ghana. Thank you very much for joining us. It's my pleasure. So to start with, I'd like to talk about the various ICT initiatives in place in Ghana to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. I've just been in the job for a little over a year, but we've been busy doing a few interesting things to ensure that we deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. And our president is one of the two UN co-chairpersons for the Sustainable Development Goals. And so it is something that is very, very uppermost in his mind that we take the lead and show the way in terms of what we do. And it is universally recognized that the ICT agenda can help us deliver on all of the sustainable development goals. And without that, it would be difficult to achieve much in that area. So if you look at education, we are piloting and rolling out a very robust e-education agenda. If you look at health, we're also working on e-health initiatives with some financing from the World Bank and some programs that are ongoing to ensure that we deliver health to all our peoples. In terms of even the way in which we live and work in agriculture as well, there are a few interesting initiatives going on to enable farmers get their goods to market using ICTs, which I think, and to even deliver market information to the farmers in terms of pricing for goods, accessing weather information and all that. We're piloting programs which are enabling them to also use ICTs to improve the ways in which they live and work. So in all sectors, we're working very hard to ensure that we really make it easier for people to live and work. We're very keen on promoting digital financial services as well. And so we're introducing very innovative ways of assisting people to move towards a cashlight society. We can't do cashless. And that's also helping to reduce corruption at all levels. We've introduced a paperless port system which has improved the turnaround time and efficiencies at the ports and reduced the frustrations that our people go through, where company registration is also benefiting from enhanced ICT applications. And even at the ports of entry as well, we have a new immigration project which is being rolled and actually tomorrow we'll be turning it on and opening it up for people to use at our ports. We have a new justice program going on to improve justice delivery systems as well. So in every area, we're working very hard towards improving efficiencies, output and the deliverables of all the work that we're doing. And we're quite excited about it. To do that, we also need to scale up our connectivity. And so one of our main priorities is to connect the 20, 30 percent of our country which do not have access to ICTs at all. And that's also very keen. That's also something that we're very, very keen on. And that our universal service provider, GIFEC, the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications, which I chair, is also very keen on that working in partnership with the private sector and our telecoms operators. And so we're rolling out aggressively and we hope to be able to connect the whole country by the end of next year. We're also looking at using fiber of other power lines, which is something that we haven't considered much in the country. So we're thinking about using that to reach the unserved and underserved areas and looking at last mile solutions to be able to deliver to the people. If what we plan to do would succeed, we need to make sure that every part of the country has access to high-speed data at affordable rates. And so we're also promoting infrastructure sharing amongst the telecoms operators to reduce their capital expenditure and make it easier for them to also deliver services to the people where it is necessary. The government is investing money in providing the infrastructure for them to locate their services. So we're quite excited about the many initiatives that are going on in the country. So it's obvious that Ghana really sees ICTs as a powerful tool for development and for inclusion as well. Absolutely. And I'm thinking youth and women's inclusion as well into the economy. Absolutely. It's indispensable. There isn't much you can do today without ICTs. And I use the mobile phone as an example. Ten years ago, some people thought they could live without the mobile phone. Today you can't. And it is the way the young people have embraced ICTs, which I find very exciting. We are actively encouraging startups, tech entrepreneurs, and we have a very vibrant tech community that we're providing some startup capital to. We have the Accra Digital Center. And the plan for that is to provide training to the people living in that area, particularly women and young people, to give them ICT skills, to enable them to also engage in the revolution that is currently unfolding before our eyes. The statistics are worrying in terms of the internet usage by women. I think it's just about 30% of those who own mobile phones. And that's a study that the GSM Association has done. So we're focusing particularly on giving women ICT skills to enable them to bridge the digital gender divide and let them reap the benefits of all that is going on as well. So every year we run a girls in ICT program in the country. And we train about 500 young senior high school students and junior high school students from selected schools and give them ICT skills and give them devices. And from the remotest parts of the country, and it is quite encouraging that after being exposed to that, the uptake is phenomenal. And so even in their homes, they're teaching their parents and siblings how to use the devices that we give them. And this year we're having it in Kumasi, which is the second largest city in the country. Last year when the Bronga Huffle region, so we move around the country creating a pool of young girls who are interested in ICT. Coding is also something that we're taking quite seriously. And so we're working with some private sector operators to be able to deliver coding education to primary school students, not just girls, but then young nine year olds, nine to 10 year olds and exposing them to it. And they're also doing some quite amazing things. We're going around the country as well to the markets and tests where women are concentrated and teaching them basic ICT skills to enable them to use their devices, to use mobile money features, and to even get them to sign up to the mobile money and platforms and to get them interested in it. The Ministry for Finance itself, seeing the potential for the sector as well, is just in the process of rolling out point of sale devices to all vendors across the country. And the majority of the market women, small entrepreneurs, are women. And so they are the ones that are going to benefit from that initiative. And it is going to be directly linked to the revenue authorities. And so it will be able to calculate the taxes payable on it and send the information directly to them without them having to worry their heads about it. So at the end of the day, it simplifies the way they work and enables them to be compliant as well with our laws and makes life easier for them so they can know the revenues that they are getting from their businesses as well. We're quite excited about that. And it just shows how ICTs have become pervasive. So in terms of transport, health, education, trading, e-commerce is also big. We're equipping our post offices to be able to engage in that space as well. We have a digital for inclusion project which is teaching ICT skills to rural areas and people who live in market centers and even the cocoa growing areas. Cocoa is one of our largest exports, exporter. And so even for those cocoa farmers as well, we're giving them ICT skills to enable them to also engage more and more fruitfully in this area. So it touches every aspect of the economy and society. All right, Mrs. Owisui Okufu, thank you very much for being with us today. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for having us.