The government of Ghana is mandated to pay Google, an amount of $400,000 annually for inserting the company’s online map into the country’s newly designed National Digital Property Addressing System, Ghana Post GPS.
According to the Managing Director of Ghana Post, James Kwofie, at a press conference organized by the Ministry of Communications following reproaches of the digital address system.
Mr Kwofie revealed when he was giving the breakdown of the amount spent on the system which was earlier announced to be $2.5 million.
“In terms of the cost, what is being paid for is the back-end solution, data analytics, hardware i.e. the firewalls and servers, Google license, marketing and publicity as well as technical support, and GHc1.7 million VAT which goes back to the government. Contrary to popular belief, Google charges when you use their systems for local purposes or commercial activities. The Google license fee at the moment is $400,000 per year – that is the enterprise package,†he added.
GHc3.5 million blown on publicity
He added that an amount of GHc3.5 million was also spent on publicizing the system.
“Publicity like I said, is GHc3.5 million, and there are very expensive firewalls, we can’t say how many, but that also cost a lot of money,†he added
President Akufo-Addo about two weeks ago launched the National Digital Property Addressing System, also known as the Ghana Post GPS in Accra, aimed at providing an effective means of addressing every location and place in the country, using an information technology application.
The app, which government said cost the country $2.5 million has been criticized by some experts in the technology space as well as some civil society organizations.