IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

It was on the theme: “Improving the Performance of the Local Government System in the era of E-Governance,” placing information communication and technology (ICT) at the centre of government dealings with citizens.

This was part of the recommendation issued at the end of the school which was on the theme: “Improving the Performance of the Local Government System in the Era of E-Governance.”

Dr (Mrs) Abigail Aryeh-Adjei, Rapporteur-General for the school, said the theme had been apt considering how fast the world is developing with an increase use of Information Communication Technology (ICT), adding that is importance in local governance was acknowledged by the school.

General Overseer of SFMI,Pastor Eddie Letsa, said the training was to provide free ICT education for determined young men and women in various employable skills in information technology.

Speaking at the 10th graduation ceremony in Accra on Friday, he said some of the programmes undertaken by the students included computer hardware, networking, windows 2003 server, windows 2008 server, Cisco certified network Administration and Linux SLED.

The Minister for Trade and Industry, Dr. Ekow Spio-Garbrah has called for the introduction of e-transactions throughout the commonwealth to facilitate less human interactions during exports transactions and ensure efficiency in the public sector.

Dr Spio-Garbrah explains that human interactions often stems up corruption which then cripples business activities and productivity in the country.

This is being done with the launching of Ushahidi platform – Ghana Votes (ghvotes2012.com) to map incidents around the Biometric Voter Registration.

A statement issued in Accra on Thursday and copied to the Ghana News Agency said AEP is providing the leadership as part of its project “Enabling Peaceful, Transparent and Credible Elections in Ghana Using New Media Platform” funded by Strengthening Transparency Accountability and Responsiveness in Ghana (STAR-Ghana).

According to him, only the two features made the 2012 voter registration a biometric exercise and marked it differently from previous registration exercises, otherwise all other information such as name, sex, age, residential address, hometown, names of parents whether dead or alive, etc, which were also collected during the exercise, had previously been collected.

Under the initiative, an ICT hub is being established at Mankranso for use by school children and teachers in the district.

Twenty new computers have already been made available, and more than 200 classroom teachers have been assisted to upgrade their skills in Information Technology.

The platform has been instrumental in changing the way people transact business, and it is progressively moving towards achieving its target of helping to propel Ghana towards a cashless society.

As part of the programme more than 100 students of Yaa Asantewaa Girls Senior High School, were introduced to the Youth in Mobile training, which trains senior high students to develop mobile applications known popularly as apps.

As part of the programme more than 100 students of Yaa Asantewaa Girls Senior High School, were introduced to the Youth in Mobile training, which trains senior high students to develop mobile applications known popularly as apps.

It said upon being served with the further and better particulars by the petitioners on 11,916 polling stations where alleged irregularities took place, it examined and analysed its records, adding, “the analysis confirmed that, no voters were allowed to vote without verification at any polling station.”

The beneficiary agencies included the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional integration, Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Food and Drugs Board, Births and Death Registry, National Health Insurance Scheme, National Communication Authority, National Information Technology Agency, Passport Office, Minerals Commission and Registrar General’s Department.

Mr William Tevie, Director General of the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) announced this at the stakeholder consultative meeting on the implementation of the e-payment systems in Accra on Tuesday.

The Volta River Authority (VRA) is set to kick start the Akosombo Smart City Project.

This is aimed at turning the Akosombo Municipality into an industrial hub.

The project which forms part of the energy-producing company’s innovation and revitalization agenda would not compromise the environmental friendly nature of the area.

The computers which cost over GH¢41,000, have in-built activation mechanisms to withstand power interruption and also have high speed internet connection.

According to him the Electoral Commission is estimating a little over 12 million people to be registered when the entire process comes to an end on May 5, 2012. The exercise is in its second phase with reports of violence still pervading some of the polling stations across the country. Parry said 600 duplicate registrations have been detected, adding that the anomaly cut across all parts of the country.

In 2010, the government, through the Controller & Accountant General’s Department (CAGD), decided to obtain the biometric information of all public servants as part of efforts to improve payroll management in Ghana but the gathering of data started in April 2012.

So far, biometric information of active workers in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central, Eastern, Western and Volta Regions have been collated.

Mr Kwasi Owusu Mintah, official of Superlock Technologies Limited, consultants to the Electoral Commission (EC) on the biometric kits, said at a workshop that all other capacities of the lap top had been blocked.

He was speaking at a workshop on the biometric registration exercise at Koforidua in the Eastern region organized by the EC in collaboration with the New Juaben Municipal Assembly for Assembly members and heads of department in the Municipality.

The measures include registration officers working for longer hours and during weekends, when and where necessary; the deployment of more equipment where patronage is very high; and the use of a booking system which schedules clients to appear at various times of the day to avoid spending unnecessarily long hours waiting for their turns at the various registration centres.

Mr Oppong Kyekyeku said this during the election of Chairmen for the Essikado-Ketan and Sekondi Sub-Metropolitan District Councils at Sekondi.

He said biometric registration would prevent multiple registrations and that the problem of minors registering would have to be checked at the registration centres.

The biometric registration process which was scheduled to commence at seven o’clock, commenced at nine thirty at most registration centers in the Weija constituency in Accra.

Some of the centers in the constituency were Rect Academy, Holy of Christ church in the Kwashiebu electoral area, Toll- Booth registration, Gedan Tuba electoral area, Langma registration center and D/A Primary Dampase electoral area, were slowed down because scanning machines were not running at a fast pace.