The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of technology and the need to prepare for a significant disruption to lives especially in terms of work, Managing Director of Stanbic Bank, Alhassan Andani has stated.
According to him, the crisis has exposed the need for government to develop and adopt new technologies and provide ubiquitous, affordable internet connectivity to ensure an effective provision of services in the country.
“The other thing we are leaving out is ICT. We are working from home and COVID-19 is going to change the way we work, so what has to be common place now is data availability. It shouldn’t be that because you are in Bolga, you don’t have data to work. So what we should be looking to do at a national level is to provide that kind of facility across the country wherever you are, you have strong internet to work from home, trade with people in Ghana and outside of Ghana, so those are the basic things you have to look at,” he said on Citi TV’s Point of View.
He also called on government to put in place the needed infrastructure to cater for those in the rural areas, as they have been grappling with little or no internet connectivity.
The outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in the country, witnessed a sudden increase in data usage due to the lockdown and the enforcement of social distancing measures as many people were compelled to either stay at home or work from home.
There has also been a proliferation of many online educational platforms and church services as government has closed down all schools and banned social gatherings including religious activities.
Data usage rises as COVID-19 forces more people to stay at home – MTN Ghana CEO
In the wake of the novel Coronavirus in the country, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh, indicated that data consumption in Ghana went up by about 20 percent after the country recorded cases of the coronavirus outbreak.
He explained that the increasing number of people working from home is responsible for the rise in data usage.
“Every day there is a change, it depends on really what’s happening, but somewhere between 15 and 20 percent will be a fair estimate of the increase we are seeing so far across the board,” he said.
