<<Print>>

The Government is constructing Community Information Centers in all the 230 Constituencies and ten Regional Innovation Centers to provide access to information and also to serve as learning centres for the citizenry. "The initiative seeks to demystify Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the rural and less served areas of the country." This was disclosed by Mr Ernest Attuquaye Armah, Deputy Minister of Communications, at the inauguration of an Information Access Center (IAC) at the University of Ghana, Accra. The facility, estimated to cost 400,000 US dollars, was funded by the Korean government, and facilitated by the Government of Ghana. He said many developed countries had made ICT the bedrock of their development, adding that, Ghana also believed that one pre-requisite to achieving "our development goals," was the use of ICT in all areas of national growth. The Deputy Minister said as an active member of the World Summit on the Information Society, the Government of Ghana was challenged to facilitate the provision of ICT access centers, and bridge the digital divide between rural and urban communities. Mr Armah encouraged the students of the university to make good use of the facility and cautioned that, such projects could only serve their intended purpose, when properly maintained to the "greater benefit of the entire society". He urged the university to ensure that the facility became a model that could be replicated in other University campuses in the country. Prof. John Gyapong, Pro-Vice Chancellor in charge of Research, Innovation and Development at the University of Ghana-Legon, said there was the need to make the facility accessible to the general public, and not only students of the university. He said this was because the facility was a donation to the entire nation and not the university alone. Prof. Gyapong said the facility would be well utilized, adding that, he believed there would be many more of such fruitful collaborations between the two countries. The Korean Ambassador to Ghana, Kyun Jaemin, said the event sent the long-standing bilateral relations between Ghana and Korea a step further. He said already, the two countries were highly cooperative economically, politically and socially. The Korean Ambassador said ICT played a pivotal role in the present world, which had become a global village, adding that, with good ICT management, Ghana could make great strides in its social, economic and political progress. The completed Ghana-Korea IAC is a multi-function facility, consisting of an internet lounge, an Information Technology Training Laboratory, five seminar rooms and an administrative office.