METHODIST MINISTER ELECTED TO SERVE ON GLOBAL RADIO REGULATORY BODY

Story: Emmanuel Ashong, Accra

Ghana's candidate to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Radio Regulations Board (RRB), Ing Edmund Yirenkyi Fianko has been elected to serve on the Board after polling 126 votes cast by Member States.

He is the second Ghanaian to serve on the Board after the late Major (Rtd.) J. R. K. Tandoh served from 1998-2002.

Ing Fianko who is the acting Director of the Engineering Division at the National Communications Authority (NCA), is a Minister of The Methodist Church Ghana, stationed at the Trinity Methodist Society, Madina Estates, in the Northern Accra Diocese of the Church.

The Radio Regulations Board is a body under the ITU responsible for approving Rules of Procedure used by the Radiocommunication Bureau in applying the provisions of the Radio Regulations and registering frequency assignments made by Member States. The Board also addresses matters referred by the Bureau which cannot be resolved through application of the Radio Regulations and Rules of Procedure.

Ing Fianko who has been working with the NCA in various capacities since 2004, is hopeful to "work collaboratively with other members in discharging the functions of the RRB".

The elections took place at the on-going ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Bucharest, Romania.

At the same conference, the Republic of Ghana was re-elected to the ITU Council, which acts as the Union’s governing body in the interval between Plenipotentiary Conferences.

The Ghanaian delegation was led by the Minister of Communications and Digitalization, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful. It included Ghana’s Ambassador to Prague with Oversight Responsibilities for Romania, Ambassador James Nyasembi, the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ghana to the United Nations Office in Geneva and Ambassador of Ghana to the Swiss Confideration, Ambassador Emmanuel Antwi (a Methodist), Ghana’s Permanent Mission in Geneva, Mr Yaw Bimpong and his team, Assistant Director at the Candidacy Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Miss Nambah Suglo.

They were supported by the Board Chairman of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Mr. Isaac Osei-Bonsu Jr, the Director General of the NCA, Mr. Joe Anokye and the Administrator of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications, Mr. Prince Ofosu Sefah and their team of officers.

The ITU is the United Nations’ specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs).