 Welcome to ITU Telecom World 2018 here in Durban, South Africa. I'm very pleased to be joining the studio today by the Honourable Ursula Oussu-Ekufu, who is the Minister of Communications for Ghana. Minister, thank you for joining us. It's my pleasure, as always. Great to see you again. I'd like to start off by talking about smart digital development, the theme of this year's ITU Telecom World. What does it mean to you? For us, it's just in line with what we're doing in Ghana. We have a digital Ghana agenda, which means using, upscaling the use of technology in all aspects of life, generally. It means providing the broadband infrastructure, extending it to all parts of the country, providing the applications and services that will write on that infrastructure to make it more relevant to the people. And the training and skills that will enable all of our peoples to take advantage of the opportunities that the digital world provides. It's not enough just to put in the infrastructure. If the services that write on it are not relevant and user-friendly and would have an impact on the lives of the people, it would just be a wasted investment. If they don't have the skills to be able to utilize the technologies that we've provided, it's also a wasted investment. And so we can derive the benefits that we want to derive from it, reducing corruption, improving efficiencies, and effectiveness of not just government communications, but people-to-people communications, government-to-business communications, and generally making lives easier for everyone. We did a rural telephony solution in one of our forest reserve areas. And a young girl, 10-year-old, who'd just been transferred from a bigger city to that little outpost there, was just beside herself excited that she could stay connected with a friend she had left behind. And for me, that makes it all worthwhile that we can use technology to improve the quality of lives of our people. And that's what it's all about. It's a smarter world, which is of relevance to the people, and they can derive tangible benefits from nothing fancy or theoretical but of practical benefits to the people. And that's why we're here. I've got two young daughters. I'm sure they could very much relate to that, too. Now, in terms of innovation, what innovation do you think is going to be the most transformative in this fourth industrial revolution? For us in Ghana, it is putting in place the proper foundations. We've talked a lot about it, done bits and bobs over the years, but have left basic building blocks unattended, too. And so, in the past few years, the government is focusing on identity solutions and then a digital address system and providing connectivity interoperable digital financial services. So you can interact between your mobile money wallets and your bank accounts. We think that those three things are foundational and form the basis of formalizing our economy. It's going to unlock capital for small businesses because it will make it easier for banks to know where their customers are, utility providers to extend service to people, makes it easier for bills to be paid seamlessly, and make it easy for government to collect its proper revenues from everybody. So we think that by putting in these basic building blocks and just sitting back, we would see a connectedness in our society and it is that connection that is going to unlock the potential, the hidden potential, the capital, the entrepreneurial spirit of our people and enable us to leapfrog development. Small beginnings, but for us they would have huge impacts and make technology worthwhile. For all that to work, we need the proper infrastructure, which is broadband, high-speed, affordable data for all our people. So it is important, the devices are important, but without having that basic foundation in place, it hangs in the air and doesn't achieve the exact benefits that we would have. So we're particularly excited about that. We want to focus on rural connectivity. We want to train our young people to provide them with the digital skills that they need to survive in the digital revolution. We want to upscale our older folks so that they can also acquire the digital skills that will enable them to improve upon the work that they do, be it farming, fishing, trading, e-commerce will open up our country and lift it up. Mobile money uptake has gone up 40% in the last quarter because people have seen the utility of it. One of our telecoms companies just conducted an IPO and 95% of those who purchase shares use mobile money, and that's very exciting for us that even at the bottom of the ladder, the people with the lowest incomes can still participate in the financial services sector if the opportunities are made available and the tools are provided for them, and it is demystified, which is what it has done. So the possibilities are endless. Trading on the stock exchange using mobile money, payment for all government goods and services using electronic forms of payment. The government is looking forward to providing point-of-sale devices linked to the revenue authority which can calculate the VAT payable at the point of the transaction and send the information to all the actors in the chain to reduce controversy and make it easy for government to collect tax revenue. What that will do if we can even collect the right revenues due to government from proper technological and digital platforms. It reduces our reliance on loans and foreign aid and gives meaning to our President's insistence that we move to Ghana beyond aid. We pay our own way, and we will use technology to achieve that, and I'm very, very excited that we are in the forefront of making that transformation happen. It's very exciting indeed. And Ghana's got a pavilion here. Its theme is Ghana's digital agenda. What's at the top of that digital agenda? We're showcasing some of those, and some of that is what I've talked about. Providing digital skills to all our people. Providing e-health. We have one of our application service providers that we're showcasing here, Stalamus. They have an innovative e-health product. The local company which developed our digital property addressing system linked with postcodes, which is assisting us to formalize our economy and be able to locate every piece of property in the country. It's also showcased here. And it's also a chance for Ghana to tell the world that we're developing world-class applications and software solutions in country. And the government is using its purchase in power to accelerate the growth of that industry. We could have procured any of those solutions from any other country, but we chose to have Ghanaian developers provide these applications that the government has acquired and is using for our EID project and for our digital property addressing system. We're using e-health solutions. We have an innovative product for farmers, which is assisting them to also modernize their operations and get real-time data to assist them in their planning. All these are the many things that are forming the pillars of the digital Ghana. The work that the regulator is doing to facilitate that process is also being showcased. So we're working in tandem between the regulator, the policymaker, Universal Service Fund to finance many of these things, effective collaborations with the private sector to develop the applications, the solutions, the infrastructure and the networks which will enable all that to work. We're looking at innovative power solutions so we're using a solar mix in all of this. It's exciting. It's an exciting time to be in Ghana and we're seeing how technology is actually driving change across all sectors of the economy and it makes us see how the little things that we sit in our offices and do make it all come together. So that's the digital agenda and our president calls it digital time in Ghana and he's in a hurry to make it happen so we're working around the clock to give effect to that. I like that. And in terms of SMEs, how important are SMEs within the industry and what's Ghana doing to foster digital innovation? They're critical in all this and if we can empower them. Like President Ramaphosa said yesterday, SMEs, the big companies will survive but without empowering women, the youth and SMEs, the digital revolution will not happen and so those are all three key focus areas that we're already working with in Ghana. We have a plug and play digital, Accra Digital Center, which is a Ghana Digital Center's limited which is providing affordable work spaces and affordable internet for tech entrepreneurs to enable them to innovate and reduce the cost of their operations considerably. We're building technology parks around the country. We have innovation hubs and iLabs around the country and one exciting thing which just happened in Ghana was that there's a World Bank International Competitive bid for managers of two NMLAB and IHAB in Accra and Kumasiwa Second City and we encouraged some of the startups which were in the Accra Digital Center, the SMEs to also take part, collaborate and take part in the bid and they won the International Competitive tender because they put together a product which convinced everyone that they could manage it and they're doing an amazing job. So if we provide them with opportunities and the facilities to enable them to innovate and to work, they can produce material which will be equal to or compete with and beat the competition out there in any part of the world. So we're excited about that. We have very smart young people and the government needs to just assist them, hold their hands, provide the environment they need within which to grow and then buy the products that they produce, utilize that instead of going for external products and then we can see the space also grow. SMEs are key to our success in this digital environment and then we would also do whatever we can to promote their growth and showcase what they're doing on whatever platform that we have to enable the world to see that we're building Ghana with Ghanaian expertise, using Ghanaian financing and working towards being completely self-sufficient in this area and lifting our economy up as we go along. Finally, in a couple of sentences, one or two, just the value of attending ITU Telecom World. Oh, it's amazing. I've seen a few of the tweets going around and Ghana is in poor position to win the most colourful and attractive stand, not just for the decor but for the quality of the products that we're showcasing here and the young people who are presenting those products. It creates a lot of networking opportunities as well, being a telecom world. We've also seen other products being exhibited in the various countries and picked up a few pointers. It's a wonderful opportunity for the ITU family to come together and learn from each other's experiences, knowing that we're doing the right things but we could also borrow a few things from one another to accelerate the pace of our development as well. We've had useful lectures, seminars, interactions and also picked up a few pointers along the way and it's just great to come together as a family now and again knowing that we're the oldest UN agency which is still at the cutting edge of development across the world. It's exciting to be in information, technology and communications in the world today. Minister of Communications of Ghana, thank you very much indeed. It's my pleasure. Thank you. Good to see you again. Thank you.