Harnessing ICTs for Development in Ghana: A Research Agenda

Abstract

The revolutionary transformations, dispersion, and convergence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the past few decades, especially since the 1990s, have generated radical changes in the methods of communication within countries and across international borders, in social interactions, and in doing business. The phenomenon has also had major impacts on the transmission and reception of news and information of diverse nature as well as on development processes, social, economic, political, and cultural change. Since the early 1990s, a considerable amount of attention has been devoted to the role and functions of ICTs in international, regional, and national discourses and conferences. The increasing prominence of ICTs in discourses on communication, socio-economic change, and development is also reflected in the increased number of research and publications on that topic in recent decades, particularly since the beginning of the 21st Century. It is in this context that the present paper examines the implications and applications of ICTs in socio-economic development process in Ghana. It briefly looks at the broad landscape of ICTs in Africa with a focus on Ghana. It highlights some initiatives in the ICT sector, including selected studies carried out on ICTs and their applications. The paper makes a case for more research to examine the contributions of ICT to Ghana’s socio-economic development, with a focus on ICT availability, accessibility and, utilization as a crucial and necessary enabler for development.