GENERAL

Government committed to achieving and fostering national digital trust

Government would deliver a National Digital Trust (NDT) to ensure seamless operation of electronic transactions throughout the country and beyond, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, has assured.

Date Created : 8/30/2024 : Story Author : Eunice Hilda A. Mensah/Ghanadistricts.com

She said digital transformation was an undertaking that necessitated constant effort, collaboration, and forward thinking; consequently, her sector was committed to working with all stakeholders to keep Ghana at the forefront of digital innovation.

The minister gave the assurance while speaking at the National Information Technology Agency's (NITA) ICT Week celebration in Accra.

The celebration is on the topic "Government Approach to Digital Trust".

Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful defined National Digital Trust as the assurance that citizens, businesses, and institutions security, privacy, and reliability of digital systems and services were preserved.

She said that the government would protect citizens from mobile cyber security threats and promote inclusive access to digital technologies through the NDT.

“We in an era where technology drives every aspect of human lives, digital trust is not just a necessity but the corner stone of a national wellbeing.

“Government's commitment to digital trust is not only about protecting information but also the cultivating culture of integrity and accountability that supports nation’s progress,” she noted.

Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful said the government has developed a policy mandating all citizens' documents, including driver's licenses, school certificates, land titles, vaccination certificates, insurance certificates, and birth and death certificates, to be digitally signed by the end of 2025.

She said the policy would enhance the security of citizen documents while tackling the long-standing problem of fake documents.

Mr. Richard Okyere-Ofosu, Director-General, NITA, said the week-long prpgramme sought to ensure that companies were identified by NITA with digitally certified certificates when doing transaction.

“Digital Trust is about trusting the Ecosystem and how do we trust that in this digital economy? One of the things we seek to achieve is companies should be identified by NITA when doing digital transaction as a result when people are doing transaction, they will have confidence in that transaction and feel comfortable.”

“And when you go to their website you will see NITA certificate attached which means that those companies are in good standing,” he said.

Mr. Okyere-Ofosu noted that one of the technologies that underpinned trust was the public key infrastructure (PKI) in ‘eMudhra,’ a digital trust service provider in India.

“India has a lot of services that runs on the PKI. For instance, the Ghana Cards we are using are authenticated and this PKI is behind the scenes,” he said.

Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako, Director-General of the Cyber Security Authority, said that building and sustaining trust was critical to how business operators interacted with stakeholders.

He said the issue of national trust in digital transactions was difficult and urged law enforcement agencies to enhance investigations and prosecutions of digital transaction crimes to restore public confidence.

Dr. Antwi-Boasiako explained that digital trust transactions were not only an internal matter, but also a global one, and that Ghana needed to improve its digital trust internally for it to fit into the broader global ecosystem.