Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has stressed on the need to ensure that training of cybersecurity professionals in Ghana should be up to international standards.
At the inauguration of a state-of-the-art cyber training laboratory at the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) on Wednesday in Accra, Owusu-Ekuful said, “our cybersecurity professionals must be globally competitive in this increasingly interconnected global economy,” adding that, “raising our standards will put Ghana in a stronger position to be competitive not just domestically, but also at the global level.”
The growth in the Information Technology (IT) sub sector including the introduction of e-payment platforms and products, paperless port systems, mobile money interoperability, among others have opened up the country’s economy to the international world, as well as making it more attractive to cybercriminals.
Ghana having reached a period of digitization, citizens need to live with the realities of current times, said Owusu-Ekuful, stating that, “the growing cyber-threat landscape as we are experiencing in Ghana today is therefore expected.”
“We need to prepare adequately to protect our critical national infrastructures, our sensitize information and data, as well as our people against activities of cybercriminals,” she intimated.
Cyber Laboratory
The state-of-the-art cyber security and digital forensics training laboratory, which is under the collaboration of KAIPTC and the E-Crime Bureau, is to encourage a more practical learning experience for professionals that would undergo training at KAIPTC.
The Minister was convinced that the path being chartered by the efforts of the two collaborators will go an extra mile to compliment the campaign by the National Cyber Security Centre and the Ministry of Communications in ensuring a ‘Safe Digital Ghana’.
By Joshua W. Amlanu