• An economy with low job creation capacity and dominated by an under-performing agricultural sector with weak under-developed industrial and services sector • The heavy national debt burden characterized by high debt per capita, and high debtservicing ratio --- factors acting as major constrains on the nation’s development efforts • An under-developed informal sector • Limited human resource capacity characterized by low professional, technical and managerial manpower base • Weak scientific research base and under-developed research and development (R&D) capacity • Relatively high proportion of the population with no educational attainment; a high school drop-out rate and limited access to higher education by the vast majority of the population especially girls and women. • Narrow export base dominated by traditional exports • Under-developed physical infrastructure and • Poor and limited communications and telecommunications infrastructure and under-performing private sector with a disproportionate The Case for the ICT4AD Policy The emergence of the information age has brought to the fore, the important role that information, knowledge and technology can play in facilitating socio-economic development. The effective use of information and knowledge is becoming the most critical factor for rapid economic growth and wealth creation, and for improving socio-economic well-being. There is no doubt that information; knowledge and technology are increasingly becoming the key drivers for socio-economic development world-wide. A nation’s capability to accelerate its socio-economic development process and gain global competitiveness and improve the wellbeing of its people depends very much on the extent to which it can develop, use, exploit and sell, ---- information, knowledge and technology in one form or another. It has been acknowledged that for Ghana to move her industrially weak, subsistence agriculture based economy towards an information and knowledge economy she will need to develop and implement comprehensive integrated ICT-led socio-economic development policies, strategies and plans. With the right sets of policies and action plans it will be possible for Ghana to facilitate its socio-economic development process through the development, deployment and exploitation of ICTs within the economy and society without first going through an extensive industrialization process. It is however recognized that for the policy to make an appreciable desirable impact on the socio-economic development process of Ghana, it will need to be integrated into the overall 7