Hubtel, Ghana’s indigenous e-Commerce & SMS messaging company, has donated 10 HP laptops to the Right to Information (RTI) Commission as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility to deepen the West African country’s democracy through access to information.
The RTI Commission was inaugurated in 2020 by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo with the mandate of ensuring that state institutions provide the right information to the public as stated in the Right to Information Act, 2009.
Speaking during the donation this week at the new RTI Commission office in Dzorwulu, on the Osu Badu Link, Hubtel’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Ernest Kwesi Apenteng expressed hope that the gesture will go a long way to increase the tenets and “of course, deepen our democracy in terms of information access for the general public.
“We are more than happy to be part of the birth and foundation of this Commission,” he added.
Justice K.A. Ofori-Atta, chairman of the RTI Commission’s seven-member governing board, thanked management of Hubtel for the donation, saying: “We express our deepest appreciation and gratitude for this invaluable donation. It has come at an appropriate time. It couldn’t have been a better time. We needed them”.
Justice Ofori-Atta assured that the laptops will be put to good use in achieving the Commission’s mandate of promoting, monitoring, protecting and enforcing the right to information and access to information in this country.
“We believe this is going to be the beginning of more things to come, not necessarily from Hubtel alone but the whole of corporate Ghana. Very soon, this place is going to be the heartbeat of right to information and access to information,” he told B&FT.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of the commission, Yaw Sarpong Boateng – a distinguished lawyer, called on other organisations to emulate Hubtel’s gesture to help not only the Right to Information Commission but other government entities which require help to properly function.
The RTI bill was passed on March 26, 2019 by Parliament, and the president subsequently assented it into law on Tuesday, May 21, 2019. The Act provides for implementation of the constitutional right to information held by any public institution, and aims to foster a culture of transparency and accountability in public affairs.
