|
Preamble
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is seen as the driving force and enabler for socio-economic development in most countries. To facilitate the ICT Policy and Plan Development for Ghana, the Technical Support Staff undertook a study of ICT deployment and exploitations in various organizations. The study is designed to review the level of ICT deployment and exploitations in the public sector. The institutions targeted comprise: Government Ministries as well as a number of Public Sector Organizations (PSOs).
The study focused on:
Conclusion
The analysis made it clear that the Public Sector Organizations (PSOs) have a larger organizational size in terms of personnel. The study also revealed that they have nationwide operations than the Government Ministries. The PSOs indicated a higher degree of deployment of computer systems.
Majority of the staff in these PSOs support most of their activities and operations with computers. Almost all of the organizations that participated in the study have IT policy/strategy in place. These organizations have initiatives to implement the policies, but the study revealed that less is spent as expenditure on ICTs. This includes acquisition of hardware, software, training, maintenance of ICT systems, etc.
The PSOs indicated having a higher percentage of in-house IT personnel. This puts them in a better position to implement most of their ICT initiatives as shown in the analysis above. Human resources and expertise it’s really significant in the deployment and exploitation of ICTs.
Considering the average ICT skill area, the PSOs pulled 30 as against 5 from the Government Ministries. This clearly shows how the PSOs are committed to spearhead the need to drive on ICTs for socio-economic development in the country.
The level of Internet access in most of the organizations was encouraging. The usage within the organizations by the personnel to support their work and activities was low. The resource of the Internet is much patronized and used by the organizations.
The striking feature however is that, the vast majority using the Internet for email, web browsing and downloading of materials. With regards to E-Commerce, the survey indicated that, majority of the organizations do not trade their goods and services on the Internet.
There are however, some IT related problems faced by the organizations involved in the study. These problems hamper the ability of government ministries and the PSOs to facilitate the deployment and exploitations of ICTs. High cost of computer products and services, computer skill shortage within the organization, problems with computer systems installation, just to mention a few.
With a more vigorous approach, most of these organizations can better deploy and exploit ICT initiatives to maximize productivity and efficiency. |
