IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

They also urged the Ministry of Education to strengthen ICT education in the curricula of colleges of education and other training institutions where the policy on ICT was being implemented, and support those which were yet to implement the policy.

“While increasing access to the Internet would improve the socio-economic circumstances, its negative influences call for a concerted effort to counter the bad influence. Increasing access should not lead us to the importation of attitudes that are incompatible with our social norms,” he said.

This project is laudable because it falls in line with the general objectives under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for accelerated development (ICT4AD) which intends to provide ICT-related services to both rural and urban dwellers.

It is to train 150 poor and vulnerable youth on work readiness and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) skills and then employ those youth in BPOs to digitise government records.

A statement issued in Accra on Friday said the grant was being made through the Rockefeller Foundation’s Poverty Reduction through Information and Digital Employment (PRIDE) Initiative.

A two-day empowerment camp to assist deepen the information technology (IT) skills of over 20 scholarship beneficiaries of the John A. Kufour Foundation (JAKF) has been held at Kwame Danso in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

It was organized by Vodafone Ghana Foundation, the charity arm of Vodafone Ghana, one of the major players in the nation’s telecommunications industry.

The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE) needs to be strengthened and be made to focused on demand driven initiatives in order to provide products to meet local needs.

Dr Kwadwo Ameyaw Korsah, Head of the Department of Adult Health, School of Nursing, University of Ghana said institutions such as AITI-KACE, the departments of Computer Sciences of the nation’s universities are challenged to produce the needed ICT professionals for the country.

She said nursing was currently one of the lucrative professions in the international community, but practitioners without basic knowledge in ICT would be unproductive.

Mrs Gordon gave the advice when addressing 100 female students at the opening session of a three-day ICT Training Programme in Sunyani on Friday.

He said according to experts, there would be two million more ICT jobs available than ICT professionals all over the world in the next decades.

“For this reason, we need to empower our school girls and young women alongside the young men to take up such job opportunities that ICT was creating”.

This was made known by the Headmistress, Mrs. Matilda R. Appiah, at the school's 20th Anniversary celebration, which was under the theme, 'Maintaining Our Academic and Social Record in the face of Daunting Challenges,' over the weekend in Koforidua.

Apart from the school, arguably the first institution in the country to introduce biometric voting, the Headmistress stressed that the students of the school also access their terminal reports via the internet.

It is the first to be opened outside the national capital, Accra.

Alhaji Mumuni said four more additional centres in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo, Tamale in the Northern, Sekondi in the Western and Ho in the Volta Regions will be ready by the close of the year.

This will help to significantly ease pressure on applicants and save them the trouble of travelling all the way to Accra to acquire passports.

This, he explained, is as a result of the increasing role science education and technology is playing in shaping the global economy as the country positions itself as an ICT-driven economy.

“Ghana is committed to having an ICT-driven economy, and for this to be fully achieved requires high skill training of students in such fields and computer engineering is well-placed in the University of Ghana to provide the leadership role.

A statement signed by Mr Gideon Adjah, Communication Manager of E-tranzact for Mr Pianim said, Mr Pianim was speaking was addressing stakeholders and media personnel at a forum organized by E-transact on theme: "E-Payment as a vehicle for economic growth".

Mrs Lordina Mahama, the First Lady, has commissioned a state-of-the-art Information Communication Technical (ICT) facility equipped with the latest technology for the people of Ampoma Community in the Brong Ahafo Region.

The Lordina Foundation facilitated the building of the Ultramodern ICT Centre, built by Huawei Technologies Ghana Limited as part of their corporate social responsibility.

The situation is not being helped by the current arrangement under which biometric registration of first timers and replacement of expired cards has been centralized and could only be done at the district office.

President John Mahama has commissioned the eastern corridor fibre optic backbone infrastructure, Monday.

The cable laid from Ho to Bawku in the Upper East Region covers 800 kilometers and will connect 120 communities to the internet.

The €38 million project is geared towards bridging the digital divide between the urban and rural communities in the country.

This, he said would lead to the creation of a national data centre for public administration.

The project, which commenced in 2006, has so far seen the completion of the first of three phases that is the network framework on which applications will be built and Microsoft’s presence is an added plus to the commencement of the second phase, which will take off later this year.

The Center will provide an integrated administration service center for 20 government service providers including Ghana Post, Electricity Company of Ghana, Ghana Water Company, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, Ghana Immigration Service and Ghana Police and many others.

The Center is part of Government E-Government Platform Project which will connect and facilitate the easy access to information and communication for all government agencies.

Hon. Kyeremeh said as government officials, they have been employed by the people and therefore attach great importance to concerns raised by citizens especially “when they relate to constructive engagement to improve public services”.

He therefore directed the agencies to ensure that they process their salaries based on the data.

This was contained in a press release signed by the sector Minister and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Friday in Accra.

Minister of Communication, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has revealed that the government will extend telecommunication connectivity to 2,016 communities to connect about 3 million people.

She showed that the government is determined to provide 95% of the population with voice and data connectivity within the next 18 months.