Ghana is making tremendous progress
towards achieving accelerated development with the use of ICT. One of such ICT
landmarks is the introduction and usage of drones in Ghana. While the usage of
drones for development in Ghana is new, it is evolving with significant
potential to aid Ghana’s development
agenda in the area of health, agriculture, security, road safety and traffic
management; natural resource management, aerial photography, 3-D mapping;
search and rescue, among others. The question however, is how the country can
make use of drones to circumvent key developmental challenges and fast-track
the socio-economic development of the country?
It is against this background that Penplusbytes
hosted the 2nd Technology Salon dubbed: “Technology Salon –
Accra: How Can
Drones Accelerate Ghana’s Development?” which was attended by 30 drone
enthusiasts, Information Technology experts, Academia, Innovators, Journalists,
Developmental partners, Donors, students, development experts, policy makers
and other stakeholders. It was held at New Media Hub on the 10th of March, 2015.
The 2 hour discussion was led by Kawmi Ahiabenu II, the director of
Penplusbytes with drone pilot David Kwamena
Bolton, Technical Director of SoftTribe, Dr. Amos Kabo-Bah, an Energy and
Environmental Engineer and Ag. Head, of GEONETCast Centre at the University of
Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) and Kwamena Hazel, a Drone pilot at Aeroshutter
as thought leaders.
The panel covered key issues and questions
surrounding the prospects of drones for Ghana’s development agenda, challenges of its
use in the country and the development sectors that will benefit from the use
of drones. The discussion also covered the business of drones, risks and
challenges, privacy issues, local research and development of drones, education
and training; and policy options, regulations, licensing and laws that should
guide the rapid uptake of drones in Ghana.
Also referred to as Unmanned Aircraft System
(UAS), Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), or a Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA),
drones have generally had a sinister image, mainly due to its use by the
military to track enemy combatants. However, improvements in technology and
lowering cost has led to the remodeling of drones to have development
applications. Drones currently have key roles in aerial photographs and videos,
real estate photography, elections monitoring, remote sensing, automated
package delivery, and search and rescue in humanitarian response. Its application has
also been seen in the area of E-Commerce order fulfillment/delivery,
Territorial surveillance, Vessel traffic monitoring and Vessel Surveillance.
Prospects of drone technology for Ghana’s development
There wasn’t a doubt about the enthusiasm of the participants regarding the
prospects of drone technology for Ghana’s development and the possibility of its
usage to accelerate Ghana’s political and socio-economic development. In this direction, the
discussions focused on the specific areas of Ghana’s developmental
framework that drone technology can be deployed. Examples of developmental
sectors given included the Forestry Commission, NADMO, Mining Commission,
Fire Service, the Police Service, Water Resources etc.
“Drones application
can provide a way of providing relief in project areas that are very hard to
reach, for instance development partners sometimes find it difficult to reach
some portions of rural Ghana, and drone technology provides the opportunity for
them to circumvent that challenges of reaching remote parts with medical
supplies or relief items” said Kafui Prebbie of Techaide a participant at
the event.
Focusing on the possibilities of the use of drones to
improve the Agricultural sector, Edward Ayo from the International
Fertilizer Development Center noted that drones could very well help cut
down the cost in research and field investigations. To him, “drones can play
useful roles in taking aerial pictures, mapping for irrigation purposes and
also monitoring activities on large scale farms”
More on the possibilities of the use of drones in Ghana, David Kwamena
Bolton of SoftTribe stated that there is an endless list of opportunities
regarding the usefulness of drones and its application for development that
Ghana and the developing world can take advantage of. He again stated
that: “Currently, we are at a preparatory stage of using drones to monitor
oil and gas pipelines in Nigeria for instance. Ghana can make gains in securing
her territorial waters by applying drone technology to monitor the activities
of illegal fishing and to protect itself from the even more dangerous risk of
pirate activities.”
Focusing on the Forestry Commission, Dr. Amos Kabo-Bah explained that the
Commission currently spends huge sums of money on forest guards to go to the
field and collect data, sums of money he believes could be invested into the
use of drones since they are more reliable ad have greater reach. To him, the
data collected by the forest guards are mostly unreliable as it’s nearly impossible
to verify some of the results presented.
Setbacks so far…
Discussions among participants on the challenges and regulatory issues
surrounding the usage of drones in Ghana revealed that there is currently on
specific law or regulations that are guiding the use of drones in Ghana,
however the Ghana Civil Aviation with
the Ministry of Transport and National Security actors have a very important
role to play in this direction. Suggestion policy and regulatory options, David Kwamena Bolton argued that regulations should be developed such
that it does not stifle innovations on the application of drone technology for
national development.
Sharing their experiences with regards to purchasing and flying of
drones in Ghana, it can to light this process is fraught with challenges such
as frustrations at the customs and bureaucracy attached to clearing the good
from the ports and high costs of drones.
Some participants shared their encounter with the general public as
they fly their drones: they talked about the look of awe on people’s faces, the
confusion and eagerness to know about the mini-helicopter look-alikes flying
around. This experience, according to them shows that Ghanaians will readily
accept the use of drones on even a larger scale if the relevant authorities and
stakeholders will commit to educating the masses on the relevance of drones’
usage to Ghana’s development and
growth.
Local research to support home-grown drone solutions?
On the potential of research and development of
UAV in Ghana Dr. Amos Kabo-Bah, from University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR)
spoke about the university work in not only training students but working to
develop and manufacture relevant drones, as well as its repairs. He added that UENR has built partnership with
partners such as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science of Technology (KNUST),
All Nations University and also in the process of bring on board some
Polytechnics in Ghana to share in the task of developing and building drones as
well as training people in the usage of it.
In conclusion,
drones are going to play a very important role in Ghana’s development due
to it myriad areas of applications in almost every aspect of national life,
there is an urgent need for stakeholders
including government to provide leadership in terms of progressive laws,
polices and regulations to drive its rapid uptake backed with mass public
education and promotion.
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