He made the comment on Eyewitness News on Monday.

[contextly_sidebar id=”dJVvXGAJNQQXRJyU9MVcKsGK1cQdkpGh”]According to Mr. Ofosu Kwakye, Dr. Bawumia must desist from purporting to be educating former President Mahama on national issues since John Mahama is far knowledgeable in such issues.

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia took a swipe at John Mahama over the latter’s criticism of the government’s recently launched Digital Property Addressing System, Ghana Post GPS.

John Mahama, while addressing teeming supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) after its Unity Walk in the Central Region on Sunday, said “How can you launch a Google GPS system that is freely available on our mobile phone and say it is a national addressing system. It is such a pity. Why will you embarrass the president so much? You go and take a whole president to bring him to come and launch a system that is 419,” but Bawumia believes Mahama’s comment was from an ill-informed position.

He said, “I read that the former President described Ghana’s National Digital Addressing system as a 419 scam. When I read his reasoning for such a description, it became very evident to me that he has no clue about what he was talking about and was just engaged in parroting propaganda. I actually had a good laugh.”

But Felix Ofosu Kwakye said the Vice President’s response to his former boss was merely propaganda.

“Listening to the Vice President, with the greatest respect to him, one could mistake him for a hapless NPP serial caller repeating the propaganda lines that they became so enamored of in the run-up the 2016 elections. He came across as a man whose hyperbolic description of the Ghana Post App has been punctured by sound technical analysis by people who understand the sector and applications like that. The Vice President is by no means an IT expert, so what he read, was merely what he has been told by the people who developed the app,” he said.

“Several independent experts have assessed this app and pointed out deep flaws which do not justify the amount of money that has been invested into it….What government is required to do, is to take on board the criticisms of the experts who have spoken and to look into talks about inflation of the cost of the app. It does not lie in the mouth of the Vice President to come and purport to educate John Mahama on anything,” he added.

Meanwhile, a Deputy Minister for Communication, George Andah, says the former President’s comment indicated that he lacked understanding of the operations of digital property addressing systems.

He said John Mahama has embarrassed himself with the comment and his handlers must be blamed for the wrong information he put out.

Ghana won’t pay Google for address system after 2017 – Andah

Government does not intend to make any more license payments to Google, beyond 2017, for embedding the company’s online map into the country’s newly designed National Digital Property Addressing System, Ghana Post GPS.

The management of Ghana Post had announced that Ghana is to pay Google an amount of $400,000 as a licensing fee annually, for making use of the tech giant’s Google Maps platform.

But speaking on The Big Issue on Citi FM, the Deputy Communications Minister, George Andah, noted that “there are other solutions that are going to come down the line.”

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to him, the addressing system is fraudulent, and that someone must be punished for misusing state funds to procure the system.

[contextly_sidebar id=”1lEUsuCqfD5DzmnHhuJsfkWHxtRusxwW”]“How can you launch a Google GPS system that is freely available on our mobile phone and say it is a national addressing system. It is such a pity. Why will you embarrass the president so much? You go and take a whole president to bring him to come and launch a system that is 419,” John Mahama said.

The former president made the statement in an address to thousands of party supporters in the Central Regional capital, Cape Coast, after the National Democratic Congress (NDC) held its third Unity Walk after the December polls.

The former president said he had restrained himself from commenting on governance issues after losing the presidential seat to the NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo, because he believed that every new government needed time to settle in office, but “it looks like NPP is whittling away its honeymoon period with the mistakes that it is doing.”

He called on the president to “show that he is serious about corruption” by holding someone accountable for the launch of the $2.5 million digital addressing system which he [Mahama] believes is fraudulent.

“When we talk about accountability, this is where the president should show that he is serious about corruption. Somebody must account for 15 million giving away free of charge.  When I was in office, there was a bus branding incident, GH¢3.6m, a minister of state resigned because of GH¢3.6m,” John Mahama said.

He, however accused the President of not being able to “take firm action in anything”.

What is wrong with the digital addressing system?

The Digital Addressing System, christened,  Ghana Post GPS, which was launched on October 18, 2017, was part of the NPP’s ideas to formalizing the country’s economy by digitally mapping and proving a digital address to all locations and properties in the country.

The project was undertaken by Vokakom at a cost of $2.5million. 

Following its launch, many IT experts have cast doubt over the system, spelling out various flaws that make it a faulty tool to undertake the purpose for which it was built.

Among the flaws some have mentioned, is the over-reliance of the app on internet connectivity especially when internet penetration in the country is still low.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to President of Imani Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, government’s quest to create a formal economy through the use of mechanisms such as the digital addressing system and the National Identification system, may be difficult, if there is no means of verifying digital addresses physically.

[contextly_sidebar id=”YsgoNH600arkCJYCvQkfWpDsliRmcp0H”]Franklin Cudjoe told Citi News that an integrated system with means of physical verification, should have been the basis for the digital addressing system.

“The conversion of such coordinates into unique codes as geographically defined for Ghana is in itself a unique thing, and I am saying that is what has been done. The backward integration, which will now mean that we would have to integrate physical addresses into the system, is something that ought to be done. I seriously believe that we should be working on those ones rather, especially when you want to now integrate it into national ID systems.”

His comments follow series of concerns raised about the functionality of Ghana Post GPS, as well as the annual license fees of four hundred thousand dollars, paid to global tech giant Google for navigational services for the addressing system.

Ghana Post GPS can withstand cyber attack -Ursula 

Despite these concerns, the Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu, has indicated that, the Ghana Post system is robust to withstand cyber attack.

Speaking to claims by some tech analysts that the data of Ghanaians fed into the system could fall in the hands of hackers, Communications Minister; Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, said appropriate measures that come with the app make it almost impossible to hack.

“The proper firewalls and security features are being built into the system prior to it going live to protect against the very things that we all fear happening. I don’t know what someone else is doing to try to breach the defences that are currently being built – they say the criminals are always one step ahead of us – but the knowledge on cyber security defences currently available today, wherever it is in the world are what we are employing in the system we are deploying.”

Background

The addressing system, which was launched by President Akufo Addo two weeks ago to provide an effective means of addressing every location and place in Ghana using an information technology application has been criticized by some experts in the technology space

For instance, President of policy think tank, IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe had described the system as amateurish and not new.

He also questioned the security risk to the data received by the system.

“I’ve read quite a number of reviews by industry watchers, and some of the comments they’ve made are not necessarily helpful – to think that you could input just any data and generate an address in itself sounds amateurish. There are basic web portals where you input any kind of data it could reject it, especially when you are filling forms. And to hear that obviously, that it is something with this app is quite troubling,” Franklin Cudjoe added.

Ghana to pay Google $400,000 yearly

It has also emerged that Ghana is to pay tech giant, Google, an amount of $400,000 every year for embedding the company’s online map into the country’s newly designed National Digital Property Addressing System.

This was revealed by the Managing Director of Ghana Post, James Kwofie.

Government has however indicated that it does not intend making any more license payment to Google beyond 2017.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The management of Ghana Post had announced that Ghana is to pay Google an amount of $400,000 as a licensing fee annually, for making use of the tech giant’s Google Maps platform.

[contextly_sidebar id=”q5H12hIjUDES1zLCFyCkK5h9DPyU2pPt”]But speaking on The Big Issue on Citi FM, the Deputy Communications Minister, George Andah, noted that “there are other solutions that are going to come down the line.”

He also intimated that, the fact that government is making the license payment for a single year was an indicator of the fact that an alternative was being worked on.

“If you are using Google Maps for 10 years, then you pay Google Maps a fee for 10 years… We intend that within the years, we would have to come out with the right solution that we want.”

In the government’s “current plan” this payment of $400,000 will be the “[first and last],” according to the Minister.

On the steps being put in place in this regard, Mr. Andah said, there was “an interministerial committee that is looking at harmonising the work that the Ministry of Local government and Rural Development has done as far as street naming is concerned.”

Google has not captured all the streets in Ghana, and Mr. Andah said “some upgrades needed to be done.”

The National Digital Property Addressing System, also known as the Ghana Post GPS, is aimed at providing an effective means of addressing every location and place in the country, using an information technology application.

The app, which government said cost the country $2.5 million, has however been criticized by some experts in the technology space as well as some civil society organizations.

The $2.5 million covers the back-end solution, data analytics, firewalls, servers, the aforementioned Google license, marketing and publicity as well as technical support.

There is also GHc1.7 million VAT factored into the cost which goes back to the government.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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As at the end of July 2017, the total subscriptions of mobile data in the country was 22,103,467, with a penetration rate of 77.58%, noted to be one of the best in sub-Saharan Africa.

[contextly_sidebar id=”aRMa2DMTpjpWIHHCcVoXcYe6gFNP7t15″]But Mr. Andah noted that, Ghana needed to up its game as far as “providing affordable and accessible broadband is concerned, however, there is an offline version of this app.”

“The offline version is so heavy that if we release it to the public when you download, it will probably chop all your data. That is why we are using the online mode so that when you download, the amount of data that is consumed is insignificant,” he explained on The Big Issue.

This notwithstanding, the Communications Ministry also has teams on the ground “physically assisting people who don’t have access to a smart device or don’t have access to broadband to generate addresses from the offline mode,” Mr. Andah disclosed.

His outfit is collaborating with the National Commission on Civic Education to go “door to door, where there is no broadband access or access to smartphones, to drive education and drive awareness to assist people to generate their digital addresses.”

The Ghana Post offices nationwide will also have these offline mode devices to enable citizens to generate their digital addresses.

The National Digital Property Addressing System, also known as the Ghana Post GPS is aimed at providing an effective means of addressing every location and place in the country, using an information technology application.

The app, which government said cost the country $2.5 million has however been criticized by some experts in the technology space as well as some civil society organizations.

The $2.5 million covers the back-end solution, data analytics, firewalls, servers, the aforementioned Google license, marketing and publicity, technical support, among others.

–

By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonine.com/Ghana

The post Offline Ghana Post app to serve people without data – Andah appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to her, enough measures have been put in place to prevent any external intrusion or hacking.

[contextly_sidebar id=”VfWPG9bVAtl0qLDS7u7eK5w1Kk9GpjMJ”]Speaking to claims by some tech analysts that the data of Ghanaians fed into the system could fall in the hands of hackers, Communications Minister; Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, said appropriate measures that come with the app make it almost impossible to hack.

“The proper firewalls and security features are being built into the system prior to it going live to protect against the very things that we all fear happening. I don’t know what someone else is doing to try to breach the defenses that are currently being built – they say the criminals are always one step ahead of us – but the knowledge on cyber security defenses currently available today, wherever it is in the world are what we are employing in the system we are deploying.”

Background

President Akufo-Addo about two weeks ago, launched the National Digital Property Addressing System, also known as the Ghana Post GPS in Accra, aimed at providing an effective means of addressing every location and place in the country, using an information technology application.

The app, which government said cost the country $2.5 million, has been criticized by some experts in the technology space as well as some civil society organisations.

For instance, President of policy think tank, IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, described the system as amateurish and not new.

He also questioned the security risk to the data received by the system.

“I’ve read quite a number of reviews by industry watchers, and some of the comments they’ve made are not necessarily helpful – to think that you could input just any data and generate an address in itself sounds amateurish. There are basic web portals where you input any kind of data it could reject it, especially when you are filling forms. And to hear that obviously, that it is something with this app is quite troubling,” Franklin Cudjoe added.

Speaking at a press briefing to update Ghanaians on the level of security surrounding the software, the Minister urged people to disregard what she terms jargons being thrown about to scare citizens.

“…Those out there are raising concerns about what could possibly happen, we also want to assure them that we are mindful of those dangers and are taking steps to prevent those incidents from occurring here. No system is completely foolproof, but as far as the current knowledge goes, we are procuring the very best to protect our digital architecture,” Ursala added.

Ghana to pay Google $400,000 yearly

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Ghana is to pay tech giant, Google, an amount of $400,000 every year for embedding the company’s online map into the country’s newly designed National Digital Property Addressing System.

This was revealed by the Managing Director of Ghana Post, James Kwofie on Friday, at the press conference.

“In terms of the cost, what is being paid for is the back-end solution, data analytics, hardware i.e. the firewalls and servers, Google license, marketing and publicity as well as technical support, and GHc1.7 million VAT which goes back to the government. Contrary to popular believe, Google charges when you use their systems for local purposes or commercial activities. The Google license fee at the moment is $400,000 per year – that is the enterprise package,” he added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey & Farida Shaibu/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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Some Ghanaians have been speaking against the Ghana Post GPS, which was built by Vokacom, alleging that it was copied from other geolocation apps, with some saying that it is a shame to the tech world.

[contextly_sidebar id=”f80LD691OutBl2Plv86XjQtrXoPzxaud”]Nana Osei Afrifa, the Chief Executive Officer of Vokacom, however told Bernard Avle on the Citi Breakfast Show that many of those who are criticizing the system do not understand it.

“We developed Asaase GPS; it is a global addressing platform that gives a digital address to each and every country in the world. Ghana Post GPS is the licensed version of this platform for Ghana. I think it’s an issue of public education and letting people understand what it is. What the person was seeing wasn’t something someone had developed; it’s a platform that Vokacom had developed,” he said.

“”How long would it have taken for someone to pick up a phone and asked for us to confirm that the platform we’ve developed is a global address platform. The Ghana Post GPS is for Ghana alone. As a company, we have a global address platform, and the bid that we put in was to show that we had an addressing system that can be used everywhere in the world. We only did a customization for Ghana.”

The Ghana Post GPS is Ghana’s official digital property addressing system which is said to cover every part of the country, and ensures that all locations in the country are addressed. It gives a unique digital address to every point in the country.

It is based on the US government’s Global Positioning System (GPS).

The GPS is a global navigation satellite system that provides geo-location and time information to GPS receivers in every part of the world, as long as there is an obstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites.

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By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @ojsarpong

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According to her, Ghana Post, which has in the last several years struggled with numerous challenges despite its prospects, will now play a key role in the roll-out of the addressing system.

[contextly_sidebar id=”UElgxseIpyIdpBfAnsZV2M03a8WxXEf2″]“The inability to keep up with technological advances in the past, bedeviled Ghana Post and almost killed it. Ironically, the technological advances of today have become the salvation and rejuvenation of Ghana Post, and this is what we are about to witness today [Wednesday],” she said at the launch of the system in Accra on Wednesday.

The launch of the digital addressing system is part of government’s grand plan of promoting effective governance through the adoption of modern technology.

Ursula Owusu remarked that, the digital addressing system will unlock a new window into the area of modern technology for the country.

She added that, the launch of the system will also help the country in the identification and registration of lands in the country, while banks will find it easier to locate their clients and borrowers.

Ursula, who had indicated at her ministerial vetting that her outfit will make the Ghana Post a profitable business, expressed her delight that the system, known as the Ghana Post GPS, is a partnership between a Ghanaian firm Vokacom, and the Ghana Post.

Ghana Post is a national communication and financial agency with nationwide coverage that has served its purpose for more than 5 decades.

In spite of its previous successes and dominance in the communication sector in the past, the company is currently struggling for relevance due to competition from private telecom companies, courier agencies and internet service providers.

Digital Property Addressing System will be sustained – Nana Addo

Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has said his government will commit all the necessary resources to ensure that the country’s digital property addressing system is sustained.

He said this after the launch of the project today [Wednesday].

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By: Farida Yusif/citifmonline/Ghana

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The result is that most of the fishes are brought to the shore dead and discoloured, with broken flesh and sunken eyes, indications that they are not fresh.

There are fears that the practice maybe widespread along the west coast of the country.

According to the Chief Fisherman at Lower Axim, Nana Kojo Eshun, the fishermen usually  use light to attract the fish, while DDT, carbide and dynamite are used to increase the catch.

Apart from the obvious health implications for fish consumers and processors, the practice is also deepening poverty among fishermen and fishmongers, largely women, as the quality and quantity of fish are adversely affected after smoking.

A fishmonger, Madam Hannah Donkor, is not happy about the situation.

“The fish caught using light is okay but the ones by chemicals are creating a lot of problems for us,” she stated.

She said some of the fishmongers had incurred huge debts as a result and explained that the dynamite and carbide methods of fishing caused fishes to rot soon after catch.

According to Madam Donkor, the fish caught with such chemicals also breaks into pieces when exposed to smoke and heat, thereby affecting prices and sales.

The use of chemicals such as DDT and carbide poses a serious health hazard to fish consumers.

Some of the chemicals have had dire consequences on the fingers of some fishmongers.

Health experts say eating food with large amounts (in grammes) of DDT over a short time will most likely affect the nervous system.

People who swallow large amounts of DDT become excitable and have tremors and seizures.

They also experience sweating, headache, nausea, vomiting and dizziness. The effects on the nervous system go away once the exposure to DDT is stopped.

Axim is a coastal town and capital of the Nzema East District in the Western Region.

It lies ,64 kilometres west of the port city of Sekondi-Takoradi to the west of Cape Three Points.

Lower Axim is a major fishing town, with as many as 1,500 canoes.

According to the Secretary of the Lower Axim Fishermen Association, Mr Micheal Nokoe, “any type of fish can be found at Axim”.

Mr Nokoe stated that there was a time when the fishermen were made to swear to the sea that they would not use the chemicals again, but the situation had changed “and many of us are using these chemicals today”.

“Unfortunately, we cannot stop our people because they also need to survive. But we are ready to stop if the government is able to stop all fishermen from the practice,” he said.

Nana Eshun described the illegal fishing practices as a major problem affecting the survival of the fishing industry.

Addressing the problem was not beyond the fishermen association in Lower Axim, he stated but he was quick to add that it was the responsibility  of the government  to assert its authority to hald illegal fishing practice in the country’s waters.

“As the chief fisherman here in Axim, for instance, we can tell them to stop and they will stop today, but we are in the same Ghana; while other fishermen are using those illegal methods, we cannot stop doing same and go hungry,” he stated.

“If the government puts its feet down, we will help it stop the illegal fishing practices,” he stated..

DDT is a pesticide that was once widely used to control insects on agricultural crops and insects that carry diseases such as malaria and typhus but is now used in only a few countries to control malaria.

Before 1973 when it was banned, DDT entered the air, water and soil during its production and use as an insecticide.

DDT is present at many waste sites. It does not occur naturally in the environment.

After 1972, the use of DDT was no longer permitted in the United States, for instance, except in cases of a public health emergency.

It is, however, still used in some other areas of the world, most notably for controlling malaria.

Source: Daily Graphic

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