Thursday, February 26, 2009

India inaugurates Pan-African e-Network project

The Indian government on Thursday inaugurated its Pan –African E-network project for 11 African countries aimed at promoting effective communication and connectivity in the continent through satellite and fibre network.
     The 125 million-dollar support project would also facilitate the sharing of Indian's expertise in the fields of education and healthcare with members states of the African Union (AU).
     The project was proposed by Indian's ex-president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam during the Pan African Parliament in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2004.
     At a video conference in Accra which saw the inauguration of the projects via electronic interaction with Ministers of State of the beneficiary countries, Mr Pramab Mukherjee, Indian's External Affairs Minister, noted that the project was part of India's commitment to socio-economic development in Africa.
     He indicated that the project would help bridge the digital divide between his country and the continent and further support e-governance, e-commerce and other information technology tools in beneficiary countries.
     Mr Mukhejee said the Indian government hoped to connect the project to all 53 AU member states and expressed the hope that this would further help to promote South-South cooperation
     Touching on Ghana's ties with India, Mr. Mukhejee said the two countries continued to enjoy good bilateral relations and expressed the hope that this would continue under President John Evans Atta Mills' government.
      He mentioned the construction of the Golden Jubilee House and the Kofi Annan ICT Centre as some projects that demonstrated the ties between the two countries.
     The Minister further congratulated Ghanaians for demonstrating political maturity during the December 2008 elections.
     Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communications, hinted that under the project, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology had been selected as one of the five super specialty regional centres and hubs for tele-education programmes in the sub-region.
     He said the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital had also been selected as a patient–end centre for tele-medicine and information sharing to improve quality healthcare, while the University of Ghana would be a learning centre for undergraduate and postgraduate programme in ICT.
      The Minister said the project had already installed a VVIP Node at the Golden Jubilee House that would provide voice and video conferencing services for the President with other Heads of State.
     Mr Iddrisu thanked the Indian government for the support and pledged the government's commitment to continue to cooperate with India, especially in the areas of ICT education and Business Processing Outsourcing.
     The beneficiaries are Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Senegal, Mauritius, Seychelles, Benin, The Gambia, Gabon and Burkina Faso.
GNA

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Computerize hospitals for efficient health care delivery

Participants at a day's consultative stakeholders meeting in Accra to discuss "the role of ICT in health care delivery" on Wednesday made a strong case for computerization of internet connectivity system to exist among hospitals in the country for efficient health care delivery.
     The participants, who were drawn from both public and private health institutions in the country, also called for Information Communication Technology (ICT) courses to be made part of the curriculum of the country's medical and health training institutions to equip the students with knowledge on its application to deliver quality service to patients.
     Chaired by Professor Ofosu Armah, formerly of the School of Public Health Legon, and organized by the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, the meeting explored the potential and actual use of ICT in health care delivery in the country and examined ways in which ICT could help strengthen the pillars of the country's health care delivery system.
     Participants were of the view that when the hospitals were computerized and inter-connectivity made possible among them, it would make diagnosis and health care delivery to patients easy and quicker at anywhere in the country.
     Currently, apart from using the manual system, health training institutions and hospitals in the country do not have ICT interconnectivity system to allow doctors to track medical records of patients easily.
     It therefore, called for action to be expedited on the country's ICT policy to ensure that the problem was addressed to make health care delivery more efficient.
GNA

Friday, February 6, 2009

$200m Fibre Optic Cable Project Underway

Work has begun on a 200-million dollar undersea fibre optic cable, which aims to provide reliable internet and telecommunication services to industry stakeholders across Ghana and Nigeria.

The project being undertaken by Main One Cable Company will help to minimize the difficulties of switching traffic between African countries and eliminate the inconveniences and added cost of first routing traffic to Europe.

It is in line with the continent's quest to participate fully in the Information and Communication Technology through digital connection with the rest of the world.

The company has already begun laying the cables, which will run from Portugal to Ghana and Nigeria to enhance efforts to digitally connect Africa with the rest of the world.

Speaking at a press briefing in Accra to officially announce the commencement of work, Ms Funke Opeke, Chief Executive Officer of the company said the first phase of the project is expected to be completed in May 2010.

The first phase spans 6,900 kilometres extending from Portugal to Ghana and Nigeria with an additional 6,000 Kilometres extension to South Africa and Angola in the second phase.

The development, she said, represented a major landmark for the continent, as this was the first time ever that a private sector driven undersea cable network received landing licences.

The company secured the licenses from Ghana's National Communications Authority and the Nigerian Communications Commission respectively, granting it the right to land its intercontinental undersea fibre optic cable in the two countries.

Ms. Opeke said funding for the project was sought within the African continent adding that; "it shows how committed we are in using the continent's resources to build this solid infrastructure for Africa."

"The unique promise of the Main One undersea cable to boost Internet access across the African continent lies in the huge improvement in bandwidth which we will be driving even while reducing costs phenomenally".

Main One, she said, is deploying the very latest technology in undersea fibre optic cabling.

"In employing the combination of Dense Wave Multiplexing Technology of 1.28 Terabits per second and two fibre pairs Main One will deliver far more capacity to the region than any existing or proposed undersea projects even while bringing costs down to about twenty percent of what is currently obtainable from SAT 3 or satellite service operators," Opeke stated.

In addition to providing a major boost to Internet access on the continent, Main One, she said would help to considerably minimize the difficulties of switching traffic between African countries and eliminate the inconveniences
and added costs of first routing traffic to Europe.

"We will also enhance job creation and local content development through skills transfer in ICT and particularly networking technologies," she said.

Beyond these direct benefits, however, said Opeke, the granting of the pioneer landing licenses to Main One Cable Company, represents a major milestone for the continuing growth of telecommunications regulatory capacity on the continent.

"Intercontinental undersea cabling, especially as driven by private sector operatives is a relatively new phenomenon in Africa and it is remarkable that regulators are fast amassing the critical expertise with which to drive rapid growth and development in this unique area for the benefit of the continent," she said.

Mr. Thomas Schaefer Jr. Shore End Installation Engineer, Tyco Telecommunication Company partners in the project said test conducted at the beach of Teshie where the cable would pass revealed that the soil is good for the exercise.

"We don't foresee any difficulty with our work with regards to the soil in Ghana," he said.


Source: GNA