President John Dramani Mahama has tasked the National Communications Authority (NCA), the telecommunications and broadcasting regulator, to decentralise its operations.

He again urged the NCA to collaborate with telecommunication companies to protect users of mobile phones and the Internet from the vices that other groups used those services for.

President Mahama made the call in a speech read on his behalf by the Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, at the inauguration of the NCA Tower in Accra yesterday.

The new NCA office complex, located at the Airport City, comprises 11 floors, two underground parking levels and three elevators. It is specially adapted for the physically challenged and has elevators with audio prompts for the visually impaired.

The construction of the building began in November, 2011 and was completed in May, 2015.

The NCA is the statutory body mandated to license and regulate electronic communication activities and services in the country.

ICT front-runner

President Mahama said Ghana had been recognised as the front-runner in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution and was on record as one of the first countries in Africa to introduce widespread growth in the ICT.

That, he said, was evident by the countless visits of people in other African countries to the NCA to have a feel of their operations.

The President said several programmes such as identification, mobile number portability, guidelines for employment and the development of ICT infrastructure were to aid the movement from analogue to digital.

He noted that from 2009 to date, mobile telecom usage penetration jumped from 11 million to over 35 million, while data subscribers stood at 18 million.

"The massive boost showed a complete adoption in ICT in the areas of education, health and agriculture.

"All these achieved within the 20 years of NCA," he said.

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Commendation

President Mahama lauded the NCA for rising to the challenge by ensuring competitive market in the telecommunications market.

He said the government was satisfied with the role of the NCA, describing it as one of the viable state institutions in the country.

NCA heads

The Director-General of the NCA, Mr William Tevie, said the NCA had grown in regulatory work, number of operators, communication access lines, number subscribers and impact on international communication scenes.

He said with the inauguration of the new office, the NCA joined other regulators such as the Office of Communications in the United Kingdom (UK), the Federal Communications Commission in the USA, the Nigerian Communications Commission and the Communications Authority of Kenya who owned their own buildings. The Board Chairman of the NCA, Mr Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, said the authority was positioning itself to become a world-class communications regulator that facilitated innovative, reliable and sustainable communications solutions to meet stakeholder expectations.