 Welcome to ITU Telecom World 2019 here from the Ghana stand at Budapest in Hungary where I've got the great pleasure of being joined by the Minister for Communications, Esla Awusuakufu and I wanted to say well thank you for letting us step onto your stand and have a little chat with you. It's a great pleasure to have you here. I'm more used to having the interview in the media center so for me it's a first and this is Ghana Day at the ITU Telecom World in Budapest so you're most welcome to our stand. Thank you very much. As the Minister quite rightly said it is Ghana Day here and we've just had a lot of celebrations here and a lot of speeches. It's cleared out a little bit here thank goodness so that we got a little bit of a quiet here just for me to be able to answer get the Minister to answer a few questions. So innovating together connectivity that matters is this events theme. What in your opinion makes connectivity meaningful and why is it important? The digital economy that we all want to develop can only be built on robust infrastructure and it demands connectivity and the nature of it is that you can't be connected in your own country and think that's okay. We need to build linkages with other countries the continent and the world and there's no better way to do it. Road trails yes but broadband fiber infrastructure is the easiest quickest way to go. The continental free trade area has been launched on the continent it's headquartered in Ghana. For ITU work we need to promote e-commerce. e-commerce can only work with robust connectivity and we need to innovate together. I keep saying that Africa will produce the workers of the century for the rest of the world. We need to give our young people the digital skills that they need. We have the most useful population on the continent whereas other continents are aging we are the most useful continent. If we give them the skills they need they can sit on the continent and work with the digital infrastructure we put in place and work anywhere in the world. We're promoting outsourcing and other things which reduce the cost of providing the services that we're giving for the companies and providing jobs in other parts of the world for young people who have their skills. It's critical that we see ourselves as sinking or swimming together. And for me if the African continent works and digitization provides us with the best opportunity to do that if we can get it right put in the digital infrastructure that we need give our people the digital skills built on on top of it the services digital services and all the online and electronic services that we need we've solved half the problems of the world so innovating together and connectivity are critical for everything that we hope to achieve. Now we just be talking to some SMEs on the ITU Smart ABC stand ITU Smart ABC stand. I wanted to ask you what's the role of tech startups and SMEs in Ghana and how can government best support them? We have a lot of talent on the continent and we need to unearth it and equip them to deliver and we're doing that to a large extent in Ghana. Many of the startups the initiatives that we showcase today started life as startups and I think that governments can use their purchasing power to buy the software and applications that our startups produce which are geared towards solving challenges everyday challenges around us and give them a hand up. We are doing that our EID project is being done by a Ghanaian company. Our digital property address system is by a Ghanaian company. We're working with Talamos which is a Ghanaian company in health. We have startups in agriculture, the environment. You name it, we have it. But it is no use being just a startup. We have to invest in the intellectual property that they have developed, utilize it, showcase it and promote its use in the country and in other parts of the continent and the world. That's how the Google's and the Facebook's started as startups in people's garages and today they're global conglomerates. We can also build our African global conglomerates if we give them a leg up and I think we're showcasing it, we're showing the way in Ghana with government itself procuring the services of Ghanaian companies, IT companies and by the end of this year we're working with a consortium of three fintechs to develop an electronic payments platform for payment for all goods and services by government agencies and so instead of paying cash for services produced by departments and agencies of government all public services delivered will be paid for electronically on a platform developed by Ghanaian companies working with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Communications and they get a percentage of whatever monies are collected from that platform so it's a win-win situation and once it works we showcase it to other companies, countries and it's the beginning of establishing a global conglomerate. Now I wanted to ask you as a first former female CEO of a telecom company in Ghana what can be done to bring more women into tech and close the digital gender gap and and how important in your opinion is it to do so? It is critical and we need to start by providing our young girls with digital skills so we have girls in coding clubs set up in the junior high schools we even need to drill down lower and grab them in the kindergarten and get them excited about all things technology we need female tech entrepreneurs to be mentors for them so that they see that there is a life very useful life that they can get in technology we need to promote science technology education and mathematics and innovation STEM education in the schools and we're doing that as part of our girls in ICT day celebration and we're not just having a day we're having a week twice a year in different parts of the country we've institutionalized a mentorship day and we brought female CEOs of technology companies including the large ones Vodafone is headed by a woman in Ghana etel tigo is headed by a woman in Ghana so we bring them to talk to the women and excite them about that in addition to that we have an open day we bring young girls from around the country we brought 60 young girls from age 13 to 16 to Accra to spend a day with the various tech companies and ICT companies and and working were shadowing the female in technology there and they exposing them to their challenges they have the excitement they have and they see them in the workplace and for us that's going to generate lifelong interest in a career in ICT for the young girls and I'm excited about that and it's something that I would want others to emulate because from the feedback we have got it's the most momentous event that has happened in their lives they have not just been taught basic computer literacy and coding skills they have seen women working with those skills in the workplace they have seen the joy that they produce they're getting from the workplace they've seen how they're contributing to the growth of various sectors in in in in the IT world and they want to be part of it that is how we can excite them and generate a lifelong interest in technology in the in our young girls and make sure that we will hand over to a generation of tech equipped tech enabled young girls who would also take the baton and move with it. Okay wonderful and just finally what's the value for you of a cross structural collaboration and and attending events such as ITU Telecom World? It is critical for us and that is why you always see Ghana a telecom world. We learn new things that are being done in other countries we share our experiences with our colleagues we meet companies who have innovative products to sell we meet the leaders in the field who share the cutting-edge experiences with us we see we we see the innovations that are being rolled out concepts that are yet to see life but we were introduced to it very early on in the developmental stages of these critical IT concepts we discuss emerging issues look at the challenges profile solutions telecoms world is has helped us develop many of the critical innovations that we're working on in the country and we we think that based on the interactions that we've had with colleagues here others are also learning from our experiences our companies through telecom world have got serious engagements and contracts with other countries and so for us will continue it will continue to be a part of our statutory calendar and and meetings that we need to attend every year and every year we come with a new crop of startups which gets a new lease of life through the engagements that they have at events such as this so we thank the ITU for providing us with this opportunity to engage and to innovate together that's wonderful thanks for letting us be together here on the pavilion here at on Ghana Day as well and taking the time to share some valuable very valuable insights with us and we look forward to catching up with you again at the next telecom world try some of our Ghanaian sweets that we brought we brought toasted coconut flakes we brought our proverbial chocolates and we brought peanut brittle we call it in catechic as well we've shared shea butter for the skin we've given everybody our kente sash which is a sign of colorful hospitality as well and welcome to Ghana thank you very much indeed thank you and thank you