Accra, Ghana//-The Cyber Security Authority (CSA) and the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) have collaborated in the implementation of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038) which was assented into law on December 29, 2020.
The respective Director-Generals who met on April 6, 2022, at the Head Office of NITA in Accra exchanged views on the benefits to be derived when they work together.
In a joint statement after the meeting, they agreed that it was prudent for them to learn best practices from each other to effectively strategise and implement their respective mandates whilst addressing issues of mutual concern.
The CSA and NITA reaffirmed their commitment to work together and agreed to: Partner to engage their common stakeholders to hold joint discussions with them on the areas of their respective mandates;
Collaborate in the development of a sectoral directive for the protection of CIIs in the government sector;
Collaborate in the area of capacity building and knowledge transfer through personnel exchanges;
Collaborate in the area of incident response as NITA is considered a Sectoral Computer Emergency Response Team (Sectoral CERT) lead pursuant to Section 44 of Act 1038; and
Collaborate on standardisation, certification and accreditation activities as part of both institutions’ regulatory mandates.
The Acting Director-General of CSA, Dr Albert Antwi-Boasiako and the Director-General of NITA, Richard Okyere-Fosu in the joint statement recognised the importance of securing critical information infrastructure (CII) and the fact that NITA, which is responsible for implementing Ghana’s IT policies has been designated as a CII pursuant to section 35 of the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038).
Both highlighted NITA’s role as a government ICT lead to work closely with the CSA to ensure the protection of government data and critical systems.
After successful deliberations, recommendations, and suggestions, they agreed to collaborate more closely on some critical areas.
The two institutions further agreed to provide each other with all the necessary assistance for the execution of their respective mandates and functions.
The meeting concluded with the issuing of a Joint Statement between the CSA and NITA which outlines the areas of cooperation, namely protection of CII, Computer Emergency Response and capacity building.
African Eye Report
