The portal for the Ghana Open Data Initiative (GODI) is expected to fully function in the next two years, an official NITA has revealed.
Speaking to Goldstreet Business on the functionality of the portal, the open data project manager at NITA, Eric Akumiah disclosed that the project stalled after it started in 2012, due to the lack of government funding to the project.
Currently the E-transform project is being funded by the World Bank, to a tune of about US$1 million, and supposed to end by 2019, he said.
The funding for the project is being piloted, with focus on four sectors of the economy, namely; Agriculture and Nutrition; Health, Energy and Education.
The stakeholders of the selected sectors would be involved in developing solutions using open data for the community, he added.
Nonetheless, the project would be run through the rest of sectors in the economy.
The project is such that, there is a policy guidelines for all Ministry Department and Agencies (MDAs) and
Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to take up open data, he explained.
Akumiah highlighted that the whole idea of the project is to incorporate open data as one of the tools that is essentially necessary for the day to day activities of government agencies.
Open data by definition involves the release of data so that anyone can access, use and share it.
According to the Open Data Charter (2015), six principles are aimed to make data easier to find, use and combine:
These principles are known to be the open by default, timely and comprehensive, accessible and usable, comparable and interoperable, as well as for improved governance and citizen engagement, and for an inclusive development and innovation.
One of the main objectives of making data open is to promote transparency.
Developing countries are lagging behind in the adoption of open data at government level, in the overall availability of data, and in the use of open data for transparency and accountability.
President, Akufo-Addo at the Africa Open Data Conference 2017 noted the government is hoping to use open data as a platform to enhance procurement, immigration, parliamentary and judicial services as well as “transform the way government transacts its businesses including the business of cabinet.”
The President also said that through the open data initiative his government is resolved to ensure that it is “legally and technically opened, that is, without legal restrictions and machine readable.
The regional report of the third edition of the Open Data Barometer, an annual worldwide survey of government commitments, implementation and impact, found open data initiatives in places in 55 percent of the 92 countries surveyed, and that civil society and technology communities were using government data in 93 percent of countries, even where data was not yet fully open.
Ghana is ranked 70th out of 92 countries in the third edition, while the highest ranked Sub-Saharan African country is Kenya, ranked 42nd out of 92 countries.
According to the Barometer, Kenya does not publish a single, fully open dataset — health, education and legislation data are open licensed but fall short of being fully open because the data are not available in bulk.
At number 46, Rwanda is the only other African country in the top half of the global rankings table. The country is on the rise and challenging Kenya for the top spot in the regional rankings.
Rwanda is also the top-ranked low-income country globally, with a score of over double second-placed Nepal
Goldstreet Business