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Mr Franklin Asare, a Fellow at Imani- Ghana has called for the implementation of digitization in the tertiary education curriculum to broaden the technological mindset of students to help them to create jobs for themselves before they hit the job market.
Mr Asare said, the advent of the internet has led to the digitization of how businesses deliver their services and products, how government make decisions, how education and health services are delivered.
During a public lecture organised by Imani Centre for Policy and Education in Accra last Thursday on the theme: ‘The Present and Next Revolution: How digitization is redefining Everything,’ , Mr Asare noted that, over the last two decades, the internet has transformed everything –from our personal to professional lives-and how international systems work.
Its impact has become so pervasive that the internet is now not only about ‘’dotcom’’ and websites but an inevitable feature of everyday life.
He added that, Ghana needs to have a digital agenda. Digitization is not only for the government, but for all. There is the need to organize a knowledge-basedworkshops and conferences to educate people about the new era.
10-15 years to come, if we don’t prepare towards this global economy, we will be left behind.
He said, digitization has already disrupted the news and book industries with the creation of YouTube, blogs and other social media app. online media has totally taken over the media landscape, bloggers are seen as a treat by the big media houses.
Digitization starts by replacing the analog product with a digital product – the record and magnetic tape were replaced by the CD; the magnetic tape video by the DVD; money by credit cards with pins (in most countries); and the thermostat by a digital version.
Taxis aren’t digital, but their supply is becoming digitally driven. Which Uber is doing now.
A digital economy is an innovative economy in which human imagination is the main source of value. With a good PC, laptop, smart phone and data, you can setup a business and run it from your home and can have a better customer and citizen relation through the digital platform.
With the digital economy, come next twelve years, oil driven cars will be banned in Europe.
With the digitized economy, Ghana can reduce corruption in various sectors because, you cannot bribe the computer.
By: Latifa Carlos
