Aimed at bridging the digital divide across the length and the breath of the continent, Omatek Computers, a foremost computer brand and the first indigenous computer manufacturing company in Africa, has successfully berthed in Ghana.
With this new development, Omatek has become the first local OEM to be established in the country.
The Managing Director and chief executive officer of the company revealed in her speech at the commissioning exercise that Omatek is the first indigenous completely knocked down factory in Ghana.
Omatek, founded 21 years ago, started by training executives on one-on-one basis. By 1991, Omatek had become premium partners with the major foreign brands at the time and it launched its first locally assembled Omatek Computer Brand from Semi Knocked Down (SKD) assembly in Nigeria.
By 2003, Omatek established its first locally assembled (CKD) factory in Africa. Today, these factories are sited in Nigeria and Ghana.
Stating the benefits of citing the factory in the country, Mrs Seriki said, "Omatek will among other things pioneer youth recruitment and empowerment in IT, create several derived SMEs and generate massive employment in the country's ICT sector."
She further disclosed that Omatek now produces for i-Advance, a government scheme designed to make for easy acquisition of personal computers by all Ghanaians, especially those in the civil service.
"Omatek factory produces for i-Advance and delivers via resellers, especially via the project managers. They pick systems up from the factory and coordinate smooth distribution to the beneficiaries."
She hinted that the scheme has further been enhanced through Omatek partnership with the banks, stating also that millions of dollars have been set aside by the banks to ensure the success of the scheme.
"Beneficiaries will be able to pick up Omatek computers under the i-Advance scheme and pay over 12 months by installments."
The event also witnessed the launch of Omatek smallest notebooks for educational institutions.
She revealed that through partnerships with key manufacturers in Asia and the privilege of research and development with them, Omatek had come up with a new Omatek 8-inch notebook for the education sector.
The 8-inch notebook comes with 60GB hardisk, 256MB memory and is equipped with WIFI while the 10-inch one is specially designed for executives.
The Minister of Communications was happy with the presence of Omatek in the country and encouraged the company to make computer available to the people of Ghana at affordable prices so as to encourage computer ownership by the citizenry.
The commissioning of Omatek Computers Ghana was attended by top personalities, and more than seven ministers of various sectors.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Suame Magazine goes ICT
The government of Ghana, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation and the Suame Magazine Industrial Development Organisation are working out a programme to obtain Indian government sponsorship to enable artisans from the magazine go for further studies in advance internet technology in order to add value to their business.
The SMIDO has a similar partnership agreement with the Kofi Anan ICT resource centre to provide light industrial technological machines at the Magazine premises to promote efficiency in their businesses and also equip them with computers to offer basic IT education.
The move by the SMIDO and its development partners is to ensure that the artisans are abreast with the current technological approach to repairing modern vehicles instead of relying on their old methods which is gradually killing the industry.
The President of SMIDO, George Asamoah Amankwa who said disclosed this at the official launching of the "Suame Magazine goes ICT road show" yesterday said the Magazine which has over the years employed large percentage of the youth in Ghana stand at a possible risk of collapse due to the introduction of highly sophisticated vehicles and their parts on the market which artisans have no knowledge of.
"It is to arrest this situation that we have taken this bold initiative to have both SMIDO as our development organization and ICT project to encourage ourselves to start with the basic computing as part of the process of establishing the Suame Tech Automatics Engineering Institute where vehicles diagnostics would be learnt using the computer"
Mr. Amankwa said to further improve upon the skills of artisans SMIDO is negotiating with the Ministry of Trade and Industry to support the establishment of the Suame Tech Automatics Engineering Institute which is estimated to cost GH¢550,000.
He also said the Organisation was working out a special financial product with UNIBANK for its members and artisans at the magazine. Through this initiative, he said they will guarantee for members to access credits from the bank to expand their businesses.
The Director General of the Kofi Anan ICT Centre, Mrs. Dorothy Gordon disclosed that the training of artisans and other workers at the Magazine is a first step towards making the Suame magazine an ICT industrial hub in the West African sub-region.
She said the establishment of the Suame Tech Automatics Engineering Institute which is in collaboration with her outfit is to ensure that artisans who enroll in the institution come out well equipped with adequate knowledge in IT and also certificates which would enable them work in other industries in the country.
She assured that the Kofi Anan ICT training centre will continue to support members of SMIDO to be abreast with the IT in order to meet the challenges of the modern technological in the execution of their businesses to safe it from total collapse.
Member of Parliament of Suame and also Minister of State in-charge of Parliamentary Affairs Kyei Mensah Bonsu expressed the need for artisans in the country to let formal education be a priority to them, noting that "there are some artisans here who are doing relatively well in their area of operations but due to limited formal education they do not realize the need to bring improvement into their busineses", calling on masters to put in place criteria for selecting apprentices for job training, saying that such criteria must first consider the educational background of apprentices before admmitting them.
credit :statesman
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Govt Poised To Attract Investments
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| � Dr Benjamin Aggrey-Ntim, Minister of Communications |
Ghana has made significant strides towards developing information, communications and technology (ICT) infrastructure to attract business into the sector, especially business process outsourcing.
Apart from the development of the national ICT backbone, currently ongoing, the Ministry of Communications is also developing standards and curricular for software development and training, an important ingredient in establishing the country as a viable Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) destination.
Apart from the development of the national ICT backbone, currently ongoing, the Ministry of Communications is also developing standards and curricular for software development and training, an important ingredient in establishing the country as a viable Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) destination.
Ghana is seeking to put her house in order to be able to generate about $750 million in the next five years.
The Director of the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) Secretariat, a body under the Ministry of Communications, Mr Kwesi Adu Gyan, said in Accra at an executive breakfast meeting of the Ghana Association of Software and IT Services Companies (GASSCOM) that in a matter of weeks, the contract would be awarded for the development of the curricular and accreditation scheme for skills training in the ITES sector.
The event was organised by AITEC Ghana, an ICT events management company, in collaboration with GASSCOM, as a prelude to a two-day seminar on BPOs, and call and contact centres.
Mr Gyan said ITES had also charged the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) to develop standards for software development and the ICT industry as a whole to move it to international standards.
He pointed out that ITES had been charged with the responsibility for nurturing the private sector to participate effectively in the IT-enabled services sector, formulate policies and create the enabling environment to advance the industry.
As part of its goals, he said the Ghana Multimedia Incubator Centre (GMIC) was set up in 2005 to develop the ICT sector through incubation as well as promote the development of the BPOs, and call and contact centres.
The director of the ITES Secretariat said to develop the sector, the country needed a cost-effective and suitable infrastructure to support the smooth evolution of the sector.
A South African consultant and founder of C3Africa, Mr Rod Jones, who has done extensive work in the IT-enabled services area in many African countries, urged the country to conduct an extensive in-country study into the sector so as to identify strengths, weaknesses, what could work for the country and what could not.
�A formal countrywide research to understand the matrices and nature of existing industry in Ghana should be conducted, after which comes a clear domestic and international development strategy to make the industry work,� Mr Jones stated.
He said it was also important for Ghana to ensure that its services offered were between 30 and 40 per cent cost-savings so as to compete with the more advanced BPO countries such as India, Malaysia and The Philippines.
According to Mr Jones, who referred extensively to the South African experience, it was also important to improve the skills of the personnel, get people to appreciate the area as career-driven and not stepping stones to look for �better opportunities�.
He said language proficiency and accent could be a drawback, but could be worked on with elaborate training and coaching.
The Minister of Communications, Dr Benjamin Aggrey-Ntim, said the sector was dear to the heart of the government and it was taking pragmatic steps to develop it.
Dr Aggrey-Ntim advised private sector operators to consider extending their services to other parts of the country, adding that the policy of the government to downsize the public sector would offer more business opportunities to the private sector BPOs, and call and contact centres.
GASSCOM hopes to play a leading role in the ICT industry of Ghana through advocacy and practical interventions, both at the private and public sector levels as a way of contributing to the growth of the multi-billion dollar industry.
Story by Samuel Doe Ablordeppey
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