The high cost of data in Ghana has once again come under the spotlight, with content creators and business owners voicing their frustrations on the #GTVBreakfast show. Hosted by Thelma Tackie, the discussion featured prominent YouTube personality Kwadwo Sheldon and Samuel Yeboah, founder of Tech In Twi, who did not mince words in expressing their grievances.

Kwadwo Sheldon was particularly vocal about the impact of expensive data on his content creation and online presence. “We are spending 5000 cedis monthly on data,” Sheldon revealed, underscoring the financial burden faced by digital content creators. He lamented that both creators and consumers are suffering due to the exorbitant prices.

In a bold statement, Sheldon accused telecommunications companies of exploiting their customers. “The telcos have taken us for granted because they know we will talk for one week and that’s it,” he charged, highlighting a perceived complacency among service providers who, according to him, do not feel the need to address ongoing complaints about data costs.

Samuel Yeboah echoed Sheldon’s sentiments, emphasizing the broader implications of high data prices on digital engagement and economic growth. “The high cost of data will not allow the benefits of digitalization to be felt,” he said, stressing the urgency for more affordable internet access to unlock the full potential of digital transformation in Ghana.

The conversation also touched on the disparity in data pricing between Ghana and neighboring countries. Sheldon pointed out, “The same MTN in Nigeria is giving the equivalent of 100 GB of data for 100 cedis,” calling into question the pricing strategies of telecommunications companies in Ghana.

Both guests called for immediate action from regulatory bodies and the government. “The authorities can do something about high data cost,” Sheldon asserted, urging the National Communications Authority (NCA) and the Ministry of Communications to intervene. “NCA and the Comms Ministry should sit down with the telcos to bring down data costs,” he demanded.

Yeboah added a political dimension to the debate, announcing plans to mobilize a protest in the constituency of the Minister of Communications. “We will deploy 3000 people in Ablekuma West to protest high data costs,” he declared, signaling a readiness to take the fight beyond the studio and into the streets.

The panelists also critiqued the quality of internet service, with Sheldon remarking, “Data speed is an issue now, and we are not getting value for money.” He called for a more reliable internet experience, noting that consumers often find their videos buffering despite paying high prices for data.

In conclusion, the discussion on #GTVBreakfast laid bare the frustrations of Ghanaians grappling with high data costs. The calls for regulatory intervention and price reductions are growing louder, as content creators and consumers alike demand a fairer, more affordable digital landscape. As Sheldon aptly put it, “If you are preaching digitalization, bring down the cost of data.”

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In today’s digital age, access to affordable data is crucial for communication, education, and economic growth. However, for many Ghanaians, the high cost of data has become a significant barrier to participation in the digital landscape. This morning on #GTVBreakfast, Thelma Tackie hosted Kwadwo Sheldon, a YouTube personality and content creator, alongside Samuel Yeboah, founder of Tech In Twi and YouTuber/businessman, to discuss the challenges and effects of expensive data prices in Ghana.

Tech in Twi: Bridging the Gap

Samuel Yeboah, the visionary behind Tech in Twi, shared the journey of his platform. Tech in Twi began as an initiative to make technology more accessible to the local population by providing tutorials and tech news in the Twi language. “We started to ensure that no Ghanaian was left behind in the digital revolution,” Yeboah explained. “But the high cost of data is now a significant obstacle.”

Impact on Content Creation

For content creators like Kwadwo Sheldon, the high cost of data has directly impacted their ability to produce and share content. “We are spending 5000 cedis monthly on data,” Sheldon revealed. This exorbitant expense affects not only the creators but also the consumers. “We are suffering, not just us content creators but consumers as well,” he added.

Reduced Engagement and Financial Strain

Both guests highlighted a noticeable decline in engagement and views on their channels, attributing this to the rising data costs. “We are consuming the same data as previously but paying far more,” Yeboah noted. Sheldon echoed this sentiment, pointing out that the quality of service has also deteriorated. “Data speed is an issue now, and we are not getting value for money.”

Strategies and Alternatives

Despite these challenges, content creators are exploring alternative platforms and strategies to reach their audience. However, these are often limited by the same high data costs. “Are people nocturnal to only watch our videos at night because of expensive data?” Sheldon questioned, highlighting the absurdity of the current situation.

Call for Action

The conversation took a decisive turn as both guests called on authorities to address the high data costs. “The NCA and the Comms Ministry should sit down with the telcos to bring down data costs,” Sheldon urged. Yeboah emphasized the broader impact, stating, “The high cost of data will not allow the benefits of digitalization to be felt.”

Consumer Protection and Market Fairness

Sheldon also criticized the lack of price control and the subpar internet experience provided by telecom companies. “The telcos have taken us for granted because they know we will talk for one week and that’s it,” he said, advocating for sustained consumer advocacy and regulatory intervention. Yeboah added, “Consumers don’t need to suffer because the courts decided that MTN is a significant market power.”

Future Steps

As the discussion wrapped up, both Yeboah and Sheldon pledged to continue their campaign for affordable data. “We are going to sustain this campaign to bring down data prices,” Yeboah declared, indicating that the movement will not stop until there is tangible change.

Conclusion

The high cost of data in Ghana is a multifaceted issue affecting content creators, consumers, and the broader digital economy. The conversation on #GTVBreakfast underscored the urgent need for regulatory intervention and more affordable data solutions. As Samuel Yeboah aptly put it, “The high cost of data will not allow the benefits of digitalization to be felt.”

Watch full interview here:

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The GA West Municipal Director of Education, Mr. Victor Noye Tawaih, has made a compelling case as he emphasized on encouraging young girls to pursue ICT studies.

Speaking at a recent event organized by the GA West Municipal Education Directorate, in collaboration with MNUN-West Africa, Mr. Tawiah highlighted the critical role technology plays in modern education and the importance of closing the gender gap in ICT participation.

“From where we stand as a country, we are beginning to see an improvement in the penetration of technology in the teaching and learning process. We believe the empowerment of girls in ICT will go a long way to ensure that we leverage the number of girls in the country against their participation in ICT because the gap is quite wide,” Mr. Tawiah said.

Mr. Tawaih elaborated on the disparity between male and female participation in ICT, emphasising that future efforts must focus on equipping schools with adequate facilities. 

“One sure way is to ensure that we have a lot more ICT facilities in our schools. We entreat the government and all stakeholders interested in developing education to ensure that we properly equip our ICT labs,” he advocated.

Addressing the issue of inadequate resources, Mr. Tawiah stressed the importance of properly outfitting ICT labs with the necessary materials and logistics. He added that when the buildings are there without the requisite tools to study, it remains dormant.

“If you have an ICT lab that is almost empty, you can’t teach the subject. We’re encouraging as many people as possible to support us in building and equipping ICT facilities,” he urged. This initiative is seen as a cornerstone for successfully integrating technology into education.

In addition to his focus on ICT, Mr. Tawiah also highlighted the significance of reading in the educational development of young learners. He introduced the theme of the reading festival: “Learn to read, read to learn, read to explore.”

According to Mr. Tawiah, reading skills are fundamental for students to thrive in the 21st century. “If you can’t read, you can’t understand whatever is going on in your world, so reading forms a basis for our learners to acquire knowledge and understand their immediate environment,” he explained.

The reading festival, organised for the first time in two years, aims to showcase the reading talents of early graders and inspire others to develop a love for reading. 

“The essence of this activity is not only to help learners display their talents and skills in reading but also to encourage those who may not be interested. By seeing what their peers are doing, they will be encouraged to demonstrate and express an interest in reading”.

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The tech giant, which says it was not responsible for the IT glitch, adds that the figure accounts for less than 1% of all Windows machines worldwide.

Microsoft ‘working around the clock to provide support’

The 8.5 million Windows devices affected by the IT outage accounts for less than 1% of all machines worldwide. Microsoft says that the “broad economic and societal impacts” shows the use of CrowdStrike “by enterprises that run many critical services”.

Microsoft can be very accurate on how many Windows devices were disabled by the outage as it has performance telemetry to many by their internet connections.

The firm says its “’working around the clock” to provide “ongoing updates and support”, with help from CrowdStrike.

The tech giant, which stresses that this was not an issue caused by its software, says the incident highlights how important it is for companies to “prioritise operating with safe deployment and disaster recovery using the mechanisms that exist”.

IT outage likely to be the largest ever

We now we have a number on how bad the IT outage may have been in terms of disabled computers worldwide.

It’s fair to say this is probably the largest ever cyber event eclipsing all previous hacks and outages.

The closest to this is the WannaCry cyber attack in 2017 that is estimated to have impacted around 300,000 computers in 150 countries. There was a similar costly and disruptive attack called NotPetya a month later.

There was also a major six hour outage in 2021 at Meta, which runs Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp – but that was largely contained to the social media giant and some linked partners.

China swerved worst of global tech meltdown – here’s how

While most of the world was grappling with the blue screen of death on Friday, one country that managed to escape largely unscathed was China.

The reason is actually quite simple: CrowdStrike is hardly used there.

Very few organisations will buy software from an American firm that, in the past, has been vocal about the cyber-security threat posed by Beijing.

Additionally, China is not as reliant on Microsoft as the rest of the world. Domestic companies such as Alibaba, Tencent and Huawei are the dominant cloud providers.

So reports of outages in China, when they did come, were mainly at foreign firms or organisations. On Chinese social media sites, for example, some users complained they were not able to check into international chain hotels such as Sheraton, Marriott and Hyatt in Chinese cities.

Over recent years, government organisations, businesses and infrastructure operators have increasingly been replacing foreign IT systems with domestic ones. Some analysts like to call this parallel network the “splinternet”.

“It’s a testament to China’s strategic handling of foreign tech operations,” says Josh Kennedy White, a cybersecurity expert based in Singapore.

How hackers could take advantage of IT outages

Whenever there is a major news event, especially one linked to technology, hackers respond by tweaking their existing methods to take into account the fear and uncertainty.

We saw the same with the Covid-19 pandemic when hackers adjusted their phishing email attacks to offer information about the virus and even pretend to have an antidote in order to hack people and organisations.

Because the IT outage has been a global news story we are seeing hackers capitalise.

According to researchers at Secureworks, there has already been a sharp rise in CrowdStrike-themed domain registrations – hackers registering new websites made to look official and potentially trick IT managers or members of the public into downloading malicious software or handing over private details.

The advice is mainly for IT managers who are the ones being affected by this as they try to get their organisations back online.

But individuals too might be targeted, so experts are warning to be cautious and only act on information from the official CrowdStrike channels.

Staying safe online: Key tips to avoid scamspublished at 16:0416:04

Tom Gerken
Technology reporter

With many of the outages being resolved, the big development today has really been around security agencies, who are each warning of an increase in scams relating to CrowdStrike.

You may be wondering what you need to do.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and others are specifically warning about phishing attacks – where scammers try to trick people into handing over their financial details.

Once someone pays up, the scammers either vanish without a trace, or will try to scam them out of more money through follow-up messages.

These sorts of scams have been around for decades and being aware of it them important, but prevention is better than intervention.

The NCSC advises people to think about the information they share online – because cyber criminals will grab all the info they can get to make their scams more convincing – and the simplest thing you can do with the biggest impact is to review the privacy settings on your social media accounts.

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Although there is no evidence that the CrowdStrike outage was caused by malicious activity, some bad actors are attempting to take advantage.

Cyber agencies in the UK and Australia are warning people to be vigilant to fake emails, calls and websites that pretend to be official.

And CrowdStrike head George Kurtz encouraged users to make sure they were speaking to official representatives from the company before downloading fixes.

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The Responsible AI Lab, RAIL of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology is developing an AI technology that could preempt the onset of rare and hitherto incurable diseases in humans for early treatment and, in certain cases, prevent deaths, especially among children. 

Such diseases include cancer and childhood diseases. 

The Scientific Director and Principal Investigator of the KNUST RAIL Project, Professor Jerry John Kponyo, disclosed this in Kumasi at the opening of a three day Ghana Data Summit.

“When it comes to identifying diseases and their cures, it is related to how much information is available. Thanks to AI, now there is a lot of data with reference to diseases which previously, we did not know about. And so, what we are doing at the Responsible AI Lab is leveraging on technology to be able to identify what the factors are as far as rare diseases are concerned.”

“So previous diseases that were to affect children and in no time they would be dead, now we are able to preempt them as a result of the use of AI. And that is the work that we are doing as far as rare diseases are concerned, and it is a positive dimension with reference to AI,” Pro. Kponyo, also the Director of Quality Assurance at KNUST, emphasised. 

Professor Jerry John Kponyo noted that, contrary to misconceptions about machine learning, especially Artificial Intelligence that has consequences for human development. such technologies are presenting huge opportunities for society in almost every sphere of human endeavours.

The three-day Ghana Data Summit is being jointly organised by the KNUST and Ndabax Ghana, a nonmprofit data and science-based organisation, with the support of GIZ and others. 

The summit brought together students from pre-tertiary and university, researchers, professionals and lecturers to expose themselves and build their competencies in emerging technologies especially Artificial intelligence (AI),  as tools for socio-economic, institutional, and personal advancement in a technologically driven world order. 

There was a panel discussion on machine learning and the opportunities and challenges they present by some experts. 

The three-day Ghana Data Summit was on theme: “Unleashing the Potential of AI through Grassroots Programme.”

The Vice Chancellor of the KNUST, Professor Mrs. Rita Dickson, announced plans by the university to organise capacity-building courses in new technologies for teachers to enable them to adequately handle the Ghana Education Service’s new curricular for pre tertiary schools.

She said AI has come to stay and that Ghana must have an AI Strategy in place to advance machine Learning and responsible use of it.

A Co-Founder of Data Science Network, Delali Agbenyega, said since the commencement of the Ghana Data Summit in 2019, about 1, 500 persons especially youth, have been directly impacted.

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As mobile threats become more sophisticated, cybersecurity experts emphasize the urgent need for robust security measures to protect smartphones.

According to a recent report, signs of a compromised device include sudden battery drain, unexpected charges, and unauthorized account access. Threats range from malware and phishing to unsecured public WiFi and SIM swap attacks.

To enhance mobile security in 2024, key recommendations include:

• Weekly reboots to disrupt potential malware
• Disabling unused connectivity features
• Avoiding public WiFi networks
• Keeping software updated with the latest security patches
• Using a case to protect microphones and cameras
• Utilizing only trusted charging accessories
• Encrypting devices and using a VPN
• Downloading apps from official app stores

By implementing these security practices, smartphone users can safeguard their personal data and reduce the risk of falling victim to cyberattacks.

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Google’s Advanced Protection Program (APP), is more accessible and convenient for users by introducing support for passkeys. This new feature offers an alternative to the previously required physical security keys, marking a notable improvement in user experience.

Passkeys are a secure authentication method designed to replace traditional passwords. Stored directly on the user’s device, they can be unlocked using a PIN, fingerprint, or face recognition.

This advancement eliminates the need for a physical security key, simplifying the setup and use of the Advanced Protection Program.

Previously, the APP mandated that users possess at least one physical security key. With the latest update, the options for two-factor authentication (2FA) have been expanded to include:

• Two passkeys or security keys
• One passkey and one security key
• One passkey or security key, along with recovery options such as a recovery phone and email

To utilize passkeys, users will need:

• A laptop or desktop running at least Windows 10, macOS Ventura, or ChromeOS 109
• A mobile device with iOS 16 or Android 9 or later
• A hardware security key that supports the FIDO2 protocol

The Advanced Protection Program is renowned for providing the “strongest level of Google Account security,” offering additional safeguards against common threats like phishing, malware, and unauthorized data access.

The program enhances Safe Browsing checks when downloading files in Chrome and restricts Android app installations to verified stores. Additionally, Google will block third-party access to Google Account data.

“Now you’re 100% unable to add proper hardware security keys. Thanks google!” by BT Uber Geek

Abner Li, Editor-in-Chief at 9to5Google, commented on the update, stating, “By adding passkey support today, Google’s Advanced Protection Program is much easier to join by no longer requiring a physical security key.”

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This feature, which was previously only available to Google One subscribers, will now be integrated into the ‘Results about you’ section of Google accounts.

The ‘Dark web reports’ feature allows users to monitor the dark web for any leaks or breaches of their personal information, such as their name, address, phone number, and email. This information will now be accessible to all Google account holders, rather than being limited to Google One subscribers.

The integration of ‘Dark web reports’ into the ‘Results about you’ section is described as a “combined solution” by Google to help users better protect their online presence. ‘Results about you’ allows users to find and request the removal of search results containing their personal information.

The timeline for this change is stated as “late July 2024,” with the removal of the Google One membership requirement noted. This move is expected to improve user privacy, as data breaches are becoming increasingly common across various online services and products.

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Source: 9to5google

About 3.5 million Ghanaians in hard-to-reach communities are to be provided with telephony connectivity by the end of this year. 

The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC) is the implementing agency facilitating this project in rural communities across the country. 

It says the government has committed €155 million to this project since 2020 with the aim of providing a telephony network to the unserved and the underserved. 

In an interview with GBC News, the Chief Executive of GIFEC, Eva Andoh Poku, during the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation Ursula Owusu-Akuful’s tour to basic schools ahead of the Girls-In-ICT regional competition, said two thousand, and 16 telephony sites are being targeted to be constructed to serve this purpose.

“To date, we have constructed 1,010 sites across the country, and we’ve connected 643 sites. We are looking forward to complete all 2,016 by the end of this year. So we are working tirelessly to ensure that we complete them by the end of September.”

GIFEC has a core mandate of providing telephony connectivity and ICT equipment across the country to support capacity building in the tech sector. 

It has also been providing technical support for the Communication and Digitalisation Ministry to successfully implement the Girls in ICT initiative to bridge the digital divide. 

Mrs Ursula Owusu-Akuful, in her day two visit to the basic schools, reiterated that her office will put in more effort to ensure that the girl child, even at the lowest level of education, benefits from the Girls-In-ICT initiative.

The Girls-In-ICT Ghana initiative has been in existence for the last four years. It has the mission of imparting ICT knowledge to 1,000 girls each year across all regions. Students from all districts in Greater Accra will take part in this year’s regional competition starting next week. 

The best three to 100 students will be given cash prizes and personal computers.

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