Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said the 1939 Information Services Department cannot function effectively in 2021 if nothing is done to bring it up to speed with the contemporary trend of disseminating information.
According to him, most of the district offices of the ISD lacked internet connectivity, which delayed processes in sending a situational report on emerging issues to the head office.
Speaking at a staff durbar of the Information Services Department in Accra to discuss its challenges and solicit ideas towards ensuring smooth operationalization of the government’s transformation program, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah reiterated that plans were afoot to recruit professional Public Relations Officers for every Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assembly to ensure efficient communication of government programs and policies to the public.
The Information Services Department evolved from an organization established in the later part of 1939 as a branch of the Colonial Government Secretariat dedicated to conveying news on the 2nd World War to the people of the Gold Coast. This was done through the production of a weekly journal dubbed the “Empire at War”.
After the war, it was renamed the Public Relations Department with oversight responsibility for the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the Ghana News Agency, and the Ghana Film Industry Corporation until they were de-coupled to form separate entities.
Following recommendations made by the Coussey Committee constituted to investigate the 1949 disturbances, the Gold Coast Government re-organized the Department into the Department of Information and transformed it into effective Government information disseminating unit to bridge the communication gap between the government and the governed.
After the February 24 Revolution in 1966, the then Ministry of Information and the Department of Information Services was merged to become the Central publicity Agent of the Government.
The Department was split in 1971 to become the Public Relations Secretariat and the Public Relations Department which is now known as the Ministry of Information and the Information Services Department respectively.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Kofi Atakora
