After 5 continuous years of membership, happy to announce I have now been admitted to Fellowship of the @ACCAOfficial
Many thanks to all who have been with me on the journey !
Owen Odonkor Adantey, FCCA, MCSI
If you guys won’t go out to protest I swear to God this bill will be enforced whether you like it or not! The protest should not just be on Twitter! Don’t let it die #ScrapNITABill#StopGalamseyNow
The fictional distinction created by your post, which is a strawman invented to make your argument sound way more persuasive than it is, is that the complaint is about conduct not already backed by law.
"Backed by law” is used so vaguely that it hides so much.
1. The existence of a parent law that permits NITA to regulate and license matters relating to information technology under Act 771 is not in doubt.
2. However, the existence of the substantive authority to do does not cover how the doing is done.
3. The current complaint from the tech community is that the manner of implementing the substantive authority is procedurally exclusionary, suppressive, onerous, and, by extension, an unconstitutional violation of people’s right to create and make economic returns from that creativity.
4. The clouding of the conversation with generic allusions and red herrings is chiefly an attempt to use technicalities to defeat genuine concerns.
Come back to the real and important issue. Does the manner in which you are enforcing the law violate creative rights or economically exploit them through licensure fees that are not only excessive but effectively an unconstitutional encroachment of economic rights?
#DropTheNITABill: Under Sections 35–37 of the Draft Bill, virtually every ICT activity, from building apps and SaaS platforms to cloud services and software development, would require a license from the new Authority.
Even worse, licenses would be restricted to companies “wholly owned by a citizen.” This directly threatens the foreign capital, partnerships, and expertise that fuel Ghanaian success stories like @Hubtel (30M+ customers) and @mpharmamutti x @mPharmaHealth (2M+ patients reached).
In a continent where cross-border scaling via @AfCFTA is the goal, this creates an isolationist “digital iron curtain” that deters venture funding and regional expansion. Innovation does not thrive when a young founder's first step is to fill out license forms and restructure ownership rather than build products.
Hon. @Samgeorgegh & @MoKevor, this isn't the time for such a draconian approach to the Ghanaian ICT sector, as embodied in this bill.
No! Not at all!
https://t.co/Y0Utt5lQUp cc: @apdigh
Dear @NITAGhana
The questions and answers provided in your response comes off a bit as a deflection of the main concerns.
Below are our concerns and would be very beneficial if answers can be provided. A twitter space won’t be a bad idea for digital natives 😊.
1️⃣ Article 46 states that no person shall be appointed as an Information and Communications Technology professional in a public or private institution unless certified by the Authority.
What specific national problem is this provision trying to solve that existing university degrees, industry certifications, and employer hiring standards have failed to solve?
2️⃣ Under Article 46, why should a private startup hiring a software engineer require state certification before employment?
Does NITA believe private companies are incapable of assessing technical competence on their own?
3️⃣ If a globally recognized engineer from companies like Google, Microsoft, or Amazon relocates to Ghana, would they legally be unable to work until certified by NITA?
4️⃣ Article 46 gives NITA power to determine the criteria and procedure for certification.
Why does the Bill not define the minimum criteria directly in the legislation itself, considering the broad powers being granted?
5️⃣ Can NITA point to any major digital economy such as Germany, United States, United Kingdom, Singapore etc. where all Information and Communications Technology professionals in both private and public sectors require mandatory government certification before employment?
6️⃣ The Bill appears to centralize approval authority within NITA.
How does NITA plan to avoid creating a bottleneck where innovation moves at the speed of regulatory approval rather than the speed of technology?
7️⃣ If a university student builds a small application, an artificial intelligence model, or an e-commerce website from their bedroom, at what point do they become subject to certification or regulatory approval under this Bill?
8️⃣ The Bill introduces penalties including fines and possible imprisonment for non-compliance.
Why was a punitive approach chosen for a sector historically driven by openness, experimentation, and low barriers to entry?
9️⃣. Does NITA see software engineering as equivalent to professions like medicine or law where licensing protects life and safety?
If so, which categories of Information and Communications Technology work does NITA consider dangerous enough to justify state licensing?
🔟 Could Article 46 unintentionally encourage companies to relocate talent, outsource development abroad, or avoid hiring locally certified professionals due to compliance uncertainty?
Has NITA conducted an economic impact assessment on innovation, startup growth, foreign investment, and youth employment?
All the media personalities pretending not to see what is going on with the NITA Bill, don’t relax too much. There is a special digital bill for your workplace too. When it reaches your side, don’t come and explain democracy to us. Don’t think you’ll be spared wai 🤝