Victor Asante is Director of Programmes, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation of Step Network. He is passionate about bridging the digital divide and has been involved in several programmes and initiatives both within the public and private sector spheres to achieve universal access to ICT.

He coordinated the deployment of Samreboi and Kuntu Community Networks and was directly responsible for Stakeholder engagements, Community mobilization, Monitoring and Evaluation.

He is also the Head of Research and Innovations at Ghana’s Universal Access Fund, the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC). He has been with the Fund since 2010 and over the period, he has coordinated several research activities undertaken by the USF aimed at identifying and providing interventions to address Access constraints particularly among marginalized populations.

He coordinated the first ever nationwide Digital Divide Survey in Ghana in 2013 in collaboration with the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization and the USAID. Subsequently, Victor served on the Technical Committee for the 2020 Nationwide ICT Survey which was commissioned by the National Communications Authority (NCA), and the Ghana Statistical Service. In 2021, he led a study on ICT Use among Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in selected Rural Communities in Ghana. Currently, Victor is supporting the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project launched by GIFEC to extend connectivity to 2,016 rural communities by end of 2023. Additionally, he is spearheading the use of emerging connectivity models like the Community Networks launched by the Internet Society and the Association of Progressive Communications (APC) to connect unserved communities in remote and far-flung communities.

To support the uptake of digital resources across the country, Victor is a key member of the global advocacy group, the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), and the Ghana Chapter of the Internet Society where he participates intensely in the activities of the Research and Data sub-group. Victor holds a Master’s Degree in Development Studies from the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana and has also gained extensive training in Project Management, Research, and Monitoring and Evaluation. He has also participated in several conferences, seminars and workshops in diverse capacities including the World Summit for Information Society Meetings organized by the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, Internet Governance Forum, etc. Victor was offered the opportunity as a Young Scholar to the Communications Policy Research programme for the Global South (CPRsouth) at Yuan Ze University, Taiwan (2015), Research Methods for Internet Policy and Advocacy (2017), Uganda, and African School for Internet Governance (2018) organized by the Association of Progressive Communications (APC) in Zanzibar. Victor will be responsible for the administration of the grant and project manager. He will also be responsible stakeholder engagements, monitoring and evaluation, gender, and sociocultural dimensions of the project.