Kofi Annan ICT Centre receives equipment for mobile phone programming

Accra, June 30, GNA - The Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in Information and Communication Technology ICT), has taken delivery of ICT equipment aimed at coming out with new innovations with the use of mobile phones.

"The lab is stocked with state of the art equipment, which include flat screen monitors, mobile phones, SIM cards, air time credits and a GSM server that converts a computer into a powerful mobile phone," said Ms. Dorothy Gordon, Director General of the Institute. She said under this innovation, students would be allowed to use the latest in mobile technologies to come up with innovative solutions for the West African market.

Speaking at the launch on Tuesday, she noted that with this technology, mobile phones would not only be used for talking and sending text messages, but could also be used to do a lot of things such as providing information on any issue one would enquire about. "This innovation can be used to tell the difference between a fake drug and a real one by the use of a scratch panel among others," Ms Gordon explained.

She said the new equipment would help the students of the Institute to grow their ideas out at the lab into society for the benefit of all. Ms. Gordon was also full of praise for Mr. Ashfi Gogo, a Ghanaian Ph D Innovation Fellow of Dartmouth Engineering school in the USA, for forging collaboration between the School and the Centre. She said under the partnership, both institutions would have students to collaborate to solve problems with global significance using cell phones.

The Director-General said later this year, students from the Institute and Dartmouth would collaboratively implement a project yet to be decided on in Ghana with the use of mobile phones. "The students will jointly develop the solution over three months and follow up with a design of the project sustainability planned to turn the idea into a venture."

Ms Gordon said the Kofi Annan Advanced Information Technology Institute, had started accepting students for the new course which would start in September this year.

Mr Gideon Quarcoo, Deputy Minster of Communication, who expressed his satisfaction with the new technology, appealed to the students to make good use of the facilities.

He praised Mr Gogo for bringing the innovation to the centre and urged all Ghanaians to emulate his example. Mr Gogo appealed to the students to tap all the benefits that mobile phones could provide.

"We should grow to the stage whereby mobile phones could be used to transact businesses between those who sell and those who need them," he said.