MDAs, District Assemblies Owe NITA Ghc13million Affecting Service Provision—David Gyewu

The acting Director-General of the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), Mr David Gyewu has stated that due to the indebtedness of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) and District Assemblies to the agency, it is unable to pay some of its service providers abroad.

Speaking at the stakeholders’ forum organised by NITA at the Swiss Spirit Alisa, he said as a result of the debt, the agency is unable to secure enough funds to also settle monies they owe some local service providers at a total of GHC80 million which has affected their delivery of service.

The Communications Minister, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful delivering her keynote address at the event revealed that NITA, the mandated body in charge of the electronic transactions and management of government’s internet infrastructure operations has been challenged due to a total amount of GHC 13million by MDAs and district assemblies.

She urged MDAs and District Assemblies owing the agency to make provisions for payments in their budgets in order to benefit from improved services provided by NITA.

“No self-respecting organization can function in the modern workplace without access to high-speed internet, data is as much a utility as water and electricity. I therefore encourage you to get into the habit of paying for services provided by NITA,” she added.

A representative from the Senior Minister's office, Mr Opoku Kyei also emphasised on the need to support NITA in its operations in order to provide quality IT infrastructure for the public sector to champion government’s digitisation efforts.

He stated, “The key message from the senior minister’s office is that we need to all support NITA to perform its functions. We are expecting that, when NITA comes out with all its regulations, we will all comply and observe them.”