EIGHT AFRICAN COUNTRIES TO PROMOTE INTERNET TRADE (SPREAD, DEC 10)

Participants from eight African countries are meeting in Accra to work out strategies to promote Internet trade and commerce on the continent.
The two-day meeting, being hosted by GCNet Ghana, is part of Africa’s initiative under the umbrella of the African Alliance of E-commerce (AACE) to take advantage of Information and Communication Technology to facilitate the development of the continent.
The participating countries are Ghana, DR Congo, Senegal, Cameroun, Morocco, Togo, Gabon and Cote d’Ivoire.
Addressing the opening session, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communications, underscored the need for African countries to develop a strategy to build the capacity and strengthen regulatory practices governing ICT.
He said with the view to deepening ICT usage in Africa there was the need to promote the development and deployment of e-commerce services in Africa.
He noted that the Alliance of African e-commerce operators had a major role to play in ensuring the exchange of information on new developments and best practices for the promotion of e-commerce.
Mr Iddrisu said the government had defined a legislative framework that would govern ICT development and usage within the country.
He said the ministry would put an Electronic Governing Bill and Data Protection Act before Parliament to that effect.
The Executive Chairman of GCNet, Mr Nortey K. Omaboe, said the occasion served as an opportunity for the organisation and the alliance to reassess the functioning of the alliance and appraise what had been achieved in an attempt to develop an organisational structure that effectively co-ordinated their relationship.
He said the deployment of the range of GCNet's e-commerce services had been geared towards simplifying the conduct of business transaction in Ghana.
The Chairman of AACE, Mr Ibrahim Nour Eddire Diagme, said the alliance was launched in Addis Ababa on March 13, 2009 to establish a structure facilitating dialogue and co-operation, among members.
He said the alliance also sought to set a framework of competence to help African countries in the development of their Single Window projects.
He said there was the need to contribute to Africa’s representation in international forum and contribute to the development of the concept at the global level.