Dr. Prince Kofi Kludjeson, President of Celltel Networks Limited says collaboration is needed among the various private and state owned institutions in Tema to turn the harbour and industrial city into a smart city.
Over the years, successive chief executive officers of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) had come up with various slogans and visions geared towards transforming Tema, with some indicating ‘restoration agenda’, and ‘make Tema shine again’ among others.
However, realizing those visions to get Tema to what it used to be some decades back, often becomes unrealistic by the time the MCEs leave office due to the loss of their party in an election or the inability of the sitting president to re-nominate them to the position.
Dr Kludjeson, who is also a Chief Technical Advisor for the Centre for Greater Impact Africa (CGIA), said this when he spoke at the Ghana News Agency-Tema Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue platform on the theme, “The new global economy and technological education.”
The GNA Tema Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue is a media think-tank platform for state and non-state and commercial and business operators to communicate to the world and address global issues.
Dr Kludjeson who is a Past President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) explained that it was important that the TMA gets every institution located in Tema involved in the planning and decision to turn Tema into a smart city just like that of Dubai.
“There must be the collaboration between TDC Development Company, TMA, companies and even the citizenry to transform Tema into a smart city, Dubai used to be a desert which was transformed to what is there today,” he said.
He said until that was done it would be difficult for any meaningful development and transformation to occur adding that whereas in some places, mayors were very important and could achieve a lot, in Ghana due to the political nature of MCEs, it was difficult for them to achieve much on their own.
“Tema is a wealthy city on its own, it has the biggest harbour in the country, a well-planned city, industries, majority of quality workers in Ghana, the Greenwich among others, but currently there is nothing to talk about Tema and attract people here, Tema must be revived for people to visit the place,” he emphasized.
The President of Celltel Networks Limited disclosed that his outfit was engaging authorities on how best to transform Tema into a smart city, saying the very old building could be redesigned into modern ones, while every home must have the provision of Wi-Fi and other modern items.
He said the need to have such technological provisions in homes and industries could not be over emphasized as it would aid productivity, education, health and other aspects of life and the economy of Tema and Ghana as a whole.
The Reverend Dr Samuel Worlanyo Mensah, Executive Director for the Centre of Greater Impact Africa, on his part said there was the need for Ghana to concentrate more on promoting the digital economy as many countries were generating a lot of revenue from it.
Dr Mensah said the development of a comprehensive plan for digital development, would be the catalyst for the country to catch up with the rest of the world.
This he said could easily solve unemployment, which has become a national threat with the digital economy adding that, the employment structure within the technological environment was huge and it could therefore be harnessed to solve the country’s developmental deficits./GNA (2022)
