NITA to hold stakeholder conference to review two Legislative Instruments

Accra, July 4, GNA – The National Information Technology Agency (NITA), is holding a brainstorming ICT stakeholder conference to review the draft content of two Legislative Instruments (Lis) for the NITA Act, 2008 (Act 771) and the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 (Act 772).

The LIs are being prepared to be put before Parliament and contributions from stakeholders at the conference would fine-tune them.

A statement signed by Mr Emmanuel J.A Fiagbenu, Head Corporate Affairs and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday said the consultative conference would take place on Wednesday 5th July to 7th July 2023 at Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence (KACE).

Time for the conference, the statement said would be from 1100 hours to 1630 hours each day.

It said the two statutes, Act 771 and Act 772, were primary legislations whose corresponding operational subsidiary legal framework had not yet been passed.

“These operational legal framework documents are critical for the effective operationalization /implementation of the primary legislation. The combined legal ecosystem of the primary and the subsidiary legislation are critical for effective development of the Government digital ecosystem, and the private sector and non-governmental digital ecosystem”.

The statement said Acts were also vital for the citizen digital ecosystem and change management orientations across the three ecosystems for policy goal attainment.

“This will provide the certainty of planning, assurance and support for innovation and the growth of digital entrepreneurs and digital products in a manner which assures the transformation impact realization as a product of digitalization.”

The statement said the Director General of NITA, Mr. Richard Okyere-Fosu expressed the importance of the exercise was to the Agency, the government, and all players and consumers in the ICT sector. He said,

“NITA has existed for 15 years without these key legislative instruments (Lis)., which are considered essential operational tools needed for NITA to function fully and effectively”.

It said he reiterated the importance of regulating ICT properly and highlighted the huge opportunities and benefits that the nation would derive from the completion of the exercise.

“This is a journey we started with our stakeholders and it is important to seek their inputs to make the LI industry-friendly and industry relevant”, Mr. Okyere-Fosu said.

GNA