Although Ghana's media landscape has become vibrant with multiplicity of media houses competing for audiences, the Information Services Department (ISD) could become the preferred source of public information if the Department was resourced to perform its mandates.
The Paramount Chief of the Ziavi Traditional Area in the Ho Municipality of the Volta Region, Togbui Korku Ayim III who shared this opinion said previously the ISD was the only authentic voice of the government and that made it the preferred source of information especially news on issues of national interest.
Also, he said in the past the ISD carved a niche for itself as effective channel for disseminating government relevant information, a brand the Department could successfully reestablish in the minds of the public if it is well resourced.
He said the government could leverage on this and resource the Department to enable it to move to every part of the country to provide the people with authentic information on government policies.
He noted that this could avoid distortion of government communication in the media.
"Pay more attention to the Department and equip it with the necessary logistics and financial resources to enable the Department to send government information to public because it was the preferred choice of the people and could become preferred choice of all government communication-related activities today" he emphasized.
Togbui Ayim III shared this opinion when the Volta Regional Information Officer, Mr Stephen Adjah and the Deputy Chief Information Officer in charge of Public Education of ISD, Mr Nelson Akatey paid a courtesy call on him as part of the ISD and Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) nation-wide public education campaign on the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) in the Ziavi Traditional Area.
The E-levy was introduced by the government in the 2022 Budget on basic transactions related to digital payments and electronic platform transactions. The rate would apply to electronic transactions that are more than GHS100 daily. This is different from the percentage telecommunication companies charge on mobile money transactions
The nationwide public education campaign aimed to make citizens rally behind the new tax to enable government generate more revenue to accelerate national development.
