Kufuor inaugurates ICT centre at Nkwantakese

Nkwantakese-Ashanti, Sept. 9, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Tuesday inaugurated a 500,000 Ghana cedis state-of-the-art Information, Communication and Technology Centre (ICT) at Nkwantakese in Afigya-Kwabre District of Ashanti.

The centre is part of government's aggressive push towards promotion of computer literacy in Ghana.

It is a joint venture between Ghana Government, United Nation's Development Programme (UNDP) and Catholic Church to provide information technology training for the northern sector. The centre named "JAK-CITI" was financed through HIPC Fund and Chinese Communication giant, ZTE, which donated 50 computers. The Ministry of Communications, through Ghana Investment Fund for Telecommunications is to establish 238 centres to provide ICT training and support for businesses and interconnectivity to communities throughout the country.

About 90 of such centres had so far been completed. President Kufuor said the idea of establishing ICT infrastructure in every part of the country was to help provide Ghanaians with basic IT skills to make them become competitive in the global village. He said government would provide a bus to the centre and urged the people to make maximum use of the facility.

President Kufuor announced a 10,000 Ghana cedis support package for an education fund established by the chiefs and people of Nkwantakese to assist brilliant but needy pupils and a health centre project. Dr Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, Minister for Communications warned the people against abuse of the centre that would enable students in the area to be part of the knowledge-based global world.

Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister for Defence and Member of Parliament for the area on behalf of the people expressed their appreciation to government for giving them a fair share of development.