Internet accessibility
There are over 7.9 million internet users in Ghana who mostly access the internet from mobile devices. [5]
Ghana Internet Activities
Ghana was one of the first countries to be connected to internet in Africa. [1]
Ghana became the next country to have internet in the Sub Sahara. Internet services began in Ghana in 1995. [2] This was made possible through the collaborations between Network Computer Systems (NCS), Pipex International, The Ministry of Transport and Communication of Ghana, Ghana Telecom, and British Telecom. [3] NCS had registered ghana.com domain in 1993.
Ghana has over 15 internet service providers who mostly provide different forms of internet services. Most of these ISPs provide wireless internet. And these include all the telcos in Ghana.
According to bandwidthplace, Ghana's internet speed hovers around an average of 1.46 Mbit/s uploads across most of the internet enabled devices tested. [4]
There are over 7.9 million internet users in Ghana who mostly access the internet from mobile devices. [5]
There are a number of ISPs in Ghana, apart from the major telecommunication companies like MTN Ghana, Vodafone Ghana, Airtel Africa, Millicom and Globacom there are other companies like Africaonline, ADTech IT and Blue Cloud Network which also provide internet services. There is also Busyinternet and Surfline which offers wireless internet services through their omternet enabled devices. Internet closure during elections
As it stands now, Ghana does not have any provisions on net neutrality. [6] This has raised concerns and brought together netizens and tech firms to protest for this provision in Ghana [7] [8]
Ghana has however faced a net neutrality crisis in the past. This was as a result of the NCA wanting to ban sites like Skype, Whatsapp, Viber and other internet based instant messaging platforms with the excuse of they causing losses to telcos in Ghana. This campaign was led by telecommunication giant MTN which complained of losses due to people's continuous use of these platforms which reduced the number of calls. This brought a huge debate and in the end this never happened. [9] NCA reacted to this that their press statement was taken out of context and the said ban was not going to happen anytime. [10]
There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet or reports that the government monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms without judicial oversight. Individuals and groups engage in the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. [11]
Although the constitution and law provide for freedom of speech and press, the government sometimes restricts those rights. The police arbitrarily arrest and detain journalists. [12] Some journalists practice self-censorship. The constitution prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, and the government respects these prohibitions in practice. [11]
In 2002 the government of Ghana censored Internet media coverage of tribal violence in Northern Ghana. [13]
During the heat of the 2016 election year, there were rumors that the Inspector General of Ghana Police wanted to shut down access to internet. The civil society organizations came out to condemn the intended shutting down of the internet and proferred solutions like tracking of the internet. [2] [14]
The then President John Mahama came out to state that the internet won't be shut down on the day of elections. [15]
Cyber fraud has been a major issue in Ghana like most developing countries in the world. A Kenyan IT firm report that Ghana lost over $50 million due to cyber fraud, this was projected to increase to around $100 million in 2018. [16] Several Ghanaians and foreigners have also been arrested for crimes relating to cyber fraud. [17] One notable crime is sim box fraud. [18] [19] [20] In 2017 the National Cyber Security Week was held in Ghana to bring stakeholders together to help address issues of cyber security and cyber fraud. [21]
The laws governing internet in Ghana include
This Law addresses some technical, regulatory and financial challenges related to interconnection. [22]
The Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) was formulated to protect personal information. This legislation was enacted by the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana to protect the privacy and personal data of individuals. It regulates the process personal information is acquired, kept, used or disclosed by data controllers and data processors by requiring compliance with certain data protection principles. [23] [24] [25]
Deep packet inspection (DPI) or packet sniffing is a type of data processing that inspects in detail the data being sent over a computer network, and usually takes action by blocking, re-routing, or logging it accordingly. Deep packet inspection is often used to ensure that data is in the correct format, to check for malicious code, eavesdropping, and internet censorship, among other purposes. There are multiple headers for IP packets; network equipment only needs to use the first of these for normal operation, but use of the second header is normally considered to be shallow packet inspection despite this definition.
This is a comparison of voice over IP (VoIP) software used to conduct telephone-like voice conversations across Internet Protocol (IP) based networks. For residential markets, voice over IP phone service is often cheaper than traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) service and can remove geographic restrictions to telephone numbers, e.g., have a PSTN phone number in a New York area code ring in Tokyo.
Corruption in Ghana has been common since independence. Since 2006, Ghana's score and ranking on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index has improved slightly, ranked higher than Italy and Brazil. However, there is a growing perception in Ghana that government-related corruption is on the rise., ranked 64th in 2012, tied with Lesotho. Even though corruption in Ghana is relatively low when compared to other countries in Africa, businesses frequently quote corruption as an obstacle for doing business in the country. Corruption occurs often in locally funded contracts, companies are subject to bribes when operating in rural areas.
Vodafone Ghana, formerly Ghana Telecom, is the national telecommunications company of Ghana. The company in Ghana operates under Vodacom Group - Africa's leading mobile telecommunications company.
Rakuten Viber, or simply Viber, is a cross-platform voice over IP (VoIP) and instant messaging (IM) software application operated by Japanese multinational company Rakuten, provided as freeware for the Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux platforms. Users are registered and identified through a cellular telephone number, although the service is accessible on desktop platforms without needing mobile connectivity. In addition to instant messaging it allows users to exchange media such as images and video records, and also provides a paid international landline and mobile calling service called Viber Out. As of 2018, there are over a billion registered users on the network.
Anas Aremeyaw Anas, better known as Anas, is a Ghanaian investigative journalist born in the late 1970s. His motto is "name, shame and jail". He utilizes his anonymity as a tool in his investigative arsenal; this has made him very popular in West Africa where most of his investigation is based. Very few people have seen his face until an "unmasking" during a BBC interview in November 2015 — and this was a prosthetic. Anas is a politically non-aligned multimedia journalist who has specialized in print media and documentaries. He focuses on issues of human rights and anti-corruption in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa.
Ameyaw Kissi Debrah, known professionally as Ameyaw Debrah, is a Ghanaian celebrity blogger, freelance journalist, and reporter. He founded AmeyawDebrah.com, an entertainment website and blog that primarily publishes news about Ghanaian celebrities. He graduated from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology with a bachelor's degree in publishing. While at KNUST, he won the Best Publishing Student award in 2005. He has made significant contributions to several pan-African websites, including Jamati.com, Orijin-ent.com, and ModernGhana.com.
CitiTrends also known as #CitiTrends is a 30-minute radio show which airs on Citi FM and focuses on technology solutions available in Ghana especially new media in Ghana. It is one of the few radio shows dedicated to technology in Ghana.
Mr. William Tevie is a Ghanaian Computer Scientist formerly known as the Director General for the National Communications Authority and member of the Internet Society of Ghana Chapter.
Hajia Alima Mahama is a lawyer and was from January 2005 to January 2009 Minister for the affairs of women and children in Ghana under President John Kufuor. She is currently the Ghanaian minister of Local Government and Rural Development, appointed into office by President of Ghana Nana Akuffo-Addo on 10 January 2017. She is the member of parliament for Nalerigu/Gambaga constituency and a member of the New Patriotic Party.
Priscilla Opoku-Kwarteng, known by her stage name Ebony Reigns, was a Ghanaian dancehall/Afrobeats artist known for her hit songs "Poison" and "Kupe". She was discovered by Bullet from Ruff n Smooth.
Joseph Anokye is a Ghanaian geodetic engineer and technology manager. He has worked with various international organizations, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the United States as a telecommunications service manager. He is a member of the New Patriotic Party and the current head of the National Communications Authority of Ghana.
Pru East is one of the constituencies represented in the Parliament of Ghana. It was created in 2004. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Pru East is located in the Bono East Region of Ghana.
Kwesimintsim is a constituency represented in the Parliament of Ghana. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The Kwesiminstim constituency is located in the Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly of the Western Region of Ghana.
The Cyber Security Law of the People's Republic of China, commonly referred to as the China Internet Security Law, was enacted to increase data protection, data localization, and cybersecurity in the interest of national security.
Privacy laws vary from state to state within the United States of America. Several states have recently passed new legislation that adapt to changes in cyber security laws, medical privacy laws, and other privacy related laws. State laws are typically extensions of existing United States federal laws, expanding them or changing the implementation of the law.
Ghana has one of the highest rates of cybercrime in the world, ranking 7th in a 2008 Internet Crime Survey. The most popular form of cybercrime in Ghana is cyberfraud and is typically achieved via credit card fraud. However, recent decreases in universal credit card usage has seen the expansion of other cybercrimes such as blackmail and hacking. This growth in crime has warranted a government response, with policies specifically addressing the cyberspace being developed. This has necessitated various studies including a cyber security maturity study which was inaugurated by the Ministry of Communications and conducted by the Global Cyber Security Capacity Center (GCSCC) of the University of Oxford in collaboration with the World Bank.
Crime in Ghana is investigated by the Ghana Police Service.