Ghana holds first ICT Awards

Accra, Aug. 12, GNA - The first ever Ghana Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Awards was held at the weekend in Accra, with a call on people in the industry to improve their innovative and creative capabilities for the nation's benefit.

President John Agyekum Kufuor, who made the call in a speech read on his behalf at the ceremony, said there was room for improvement and further collaboration with government to provide better access to ICT to many Ghanaians.

He urged stakeholders in the industry to initiate social responsibility programmes that would address the needs of the disadvantage and physically challenged.

President Kufuor noted that ICT provided the competitive edge for businesses and the socio-economic development of the country.

"In recognition of this, government continues to invest in world-class information technology systems to attain a leadership status in the West African."

President Kufuor said the pervasive ICT high-speed networks were no longer a luxury but an essential infrastructure for socio-economic development.

He said "We must prepare the infrastructure for the current needs as well as future needs and we will also have to do cost-effective work and in an efficient manner."

President Kufuor said it was necessary to have easy and affordable access to resources that would enable businesses especially local small medium scale enterprises to provide new services to the citizenry. He said as a result, Government was committed to enhancing the bandwidth availability to promote efficiency in ICT services at affordable cost.

President Kufuor said the construction of the National Fibre Communication Backbone Infrastructure had commenced and urged all businesses to explore and harness its potential and that the first phase of the project would start by the close of the year.

He explained that the project would open the doors to new business opportunities in software and hardware development and create new jobs for the youth.

President Kufour said that as the ICT industry strives for peaks of excellence by global standards, the challenge for Ghana would be to work hard to be among the world's best countries in the industry.

Dr. Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, Minister of Communication, said the awards which was championed by the Ministry of Communication in partnership with people in industry was designed as a catalyst for the Government and private sector to drive the programme of using ICT for accelerated development.

Mr. Ntim said the objective was to evaluate and recognize standards of excellence in the quest for growth and development, encourage public and private institutions to use ICT for development and to ensure that ICT professionals were provided a benchmark for recognizing and validating outstanding contributions.

He said the event, which saw 17 companies and institutions receiving awards would be an annual affair. Soft Tribe Company received an award for being the pioneering software company that has promoted and stimulated the growth of software development in the country.

Network Computer Services received an award for been the first Internet Service Provider, ACR Company, was adjusted the first major outsourcing company and NCR Company as the pioneer in hardware trading in computers.

Kasapa, Tigo and MTN were awarded for their being the first companies in implementing CDMA, provision of mobile telephones and GSM in Ghana respectively.

One Touch of the Ghana Telecom Company received the award for its pioneering role in the provision of ICT in remote parts of Ghana whilst Ghana Telecom took the award for its pioneering role in implementing international gateway via undersea cable.

Business Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and IPMC were adjudged the pioneering companies in establishing cyber cafes and ICT training University in the country respectively. Clydestone Ghana received an award for been the first to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange and Ghana Commercial Bank as the first company to be computerized.

University of Ghana was adjudged the first in providing leadership in the creation of academic research network in ICT. The pioneering role in the use of ICT tools for employment award went to the Ghana Society for Blind.

The only lifetime achievement for ICT development award went to Professor Clement Dzidonu, who provided leadership for the development of Ghana's ICT for accelerated development policy.

Source: GNA

UNECA supports e-trade in Ghana

Ghana and the rest of Africa can make significant progress in developing high-tech export products? industry to boost trade if attention is given to the development of scientific and industrial research base.

According to reports and supported by evidence collated by the World Bank a number of countries in Africa have a low research.

Analysts believe that the trend was attributable to the minimal number of scientists and engineers available on the African continent.

In Ghana for instance, a study conducted as part of the input for the Ghana ICT4AD process on the number of research scientists and engineers in the universities and the number of registered practicing engineers in the country, estimated that the number of scientists and engineers per million persons was close to 300.

Less than 10 per cent of the number was involved in research and development (R&D) works. This was interpreted to mean that Ghana had as low as less than 30 scientists and engineers per million persons involved in research and development.

The statistics in the World Bank report also meant that countries with a high percentage of scientists and engineers involved in R&D were those that were doing well in the area of high tech exports.

Another study report on ICTs and Trade urged Ghanaians to develop scientific and industrial research base and take policy steps to increase the percentage of scientists and engineers involved in R&D work.

"The recommendation here is that: if Ghana is to make any progress in developing a high-tech export industry to enable it address the challenges of a weak and narrow export based dominated by traditional products, a lot of efforts will need to be directed at developing the nation's R&D base devoting particular attention to establishing linkages between industry and the research institutions and universities", the report said.

This, the ICTs and Trade report said, would enable the nation to make appreciable progress in developing high-tech exports.

The World Bank report formed part of the basis for the recommendations in the other report that sought to find ways to inculcate ICTs into trade in Ghana.

The other report titled "The ICTs, Trade and Economic Growth Study: The Ghana Report" researched into a number of policy issues relating to the prospects and the opportunities of the deployment and exploitation of ICTs to facilitate economic growth through the promotion of Ghana's internal and external trade.

The study was funded by the United Nation's Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

The main objective of the UNECA supported study was to carry out an extensive research work on the subject matter with a view to come out with specific policy recommendations to guide and facilitate the deployment and the use of ICTs to promote regional and international trade to promote Ghana's economic growth and development in the information age.

Among the areas researched into was the socio-economic and ICT landscape of Ghana with a focus on a number of indicators including those relating to demographic and ICT deployment and roll-out.

The study also reviewed Ghana?s trade landscape through the use of a number of broad and specific trade indicators to provide a basis for assessing Ghana's capacity to facilitate economic growth.

While assessing Ghana?s readiness to promote trade and economic growth through the deployment and the exploitation of ICTs, the study also identified key target areas and sectors such as commodities, financial services, BPOs, e-Content services, tourism, export and m-trade whose activities can be supported and harnessed through the use of ICTs and trade facilitation to improve their competitiveness.

An area of policy recommendation that Ghana can also pursue to develop e-trade capacity especially in ICT products and services is to put in place policy initiatives and incentive packages to product development of the ICT industry and services sector.

The report said promotion of ICT friendly and trade related policies must seek to promote enabling industrial and trade policies and instruments as well as suitable investment, competition and business promotion policies and regimes, mechanisms and environment.

The report said while looking at policy interventions, there is the need to also pay attention to issues that would complement private sector investments, availability of a critical pool of labour with the requisite technical skill, education that makes ICT specialisation a prime focus, simplified trade procedures and a consistent capacity building.

ENDS....

Highway Africa News Agency

AITI & CIS Ghana, Collaborate to Train ICT Professionals

The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, Ghana first Advanced Information Technology Institute (AITI) and CIS Ghana, a major stakeholder in supporting the sub-region's drive to deploy and use ICT effectively, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide the needed knowhow in emerging ICT skills and technologies.

The purpose of this partnership is to deliver high level ICT training for corporate entities and individuals; and also to share experience on the ICT landscape in the ECOWAS Region. Both AITI and CIS have over the years been at the forefront of promoting and equipping businesses with the necessary human and capital resources in the sub-region to compete globally.

The exciting new range of courses offers globally benchmarked training methodologies and tools in system and network administration. The programmes are designed to provide hands-on training on leading ICT infrastructures such as HP-UNIX, IBM, SUN Microsystems, etc. The partnership between AITI and CIS guarantees quality, international benchmarked training with the option of international certification.

System Administrators; Computer Graduates; Webmasters; IT Professionals looking to upgrade and improve their skills have available to them a state-of-the-art facility and experienced and qualified instructors.

Ghanaian companies and computer professionals can now benefit from a partnership that signifies only the best in ICT solutions.