Key threats and challenges to the preservation of digital records of public institutions in Ghana

The rapid pace with which technology is changing continues to pose a perpetual threat to digital preservation. Although initiatives in digital preservation in Europe, North America, Asia and sporadic attempts in Africa appear to have yielded some level of progress, permanent access to information and longevity of digital records continue to be a problem. Whilst Africa’s contribution to the growth of digital records may be insignificant, it is growing and Ghana cannot be insulated from this threat of digital growth. This paper examines the current challenges of digital preservation in sub-Saharan Africa with particular reference to Ghana. It identified funding, level of security and privacy, skills training and technological obsolescence as factors that pose key threats to digital preservation. The paper recommends that the ministries and agencies can address many of the digital preservation challenges if they adopt backup, refreshing, metadata and migration strategies.