Open source – resource centre for West Africa

STORY BY: PATRICK ASFORD BOADU.

Government says it will deliver better value for money in the

e-governance programme. These include critical areas of the economy such as

education, health and agriculture. Deputy Minister for communication, Gideon

Quarcoo made this known at the launch of ‘’Open Source” resource centre for the

Economic West African States (ECOWAS) at the Ghana – India Kofi Annan centre of

Excellence in ICT. He noted that the establishment of “Open Source” Resource

Centre will facilitate economic growth and open Job opportunities for member

states to development the sub region. He said “The development of through Open

Source software solutions globally are enormous, the growth in open source in

business, civil society and both private and public sectors internationally are

a welcome news to the sub Saharan African region. The deputy minister of

communication, Gideon Quarcoo said the Open Source Resource Centre will serve

as the mainstream system to formulate policy for economic growth among member

states. He said “Africans need to work together to advance our ownership of

technology. It is for this reason that we are extremely pleased that Ghana –

India Kofi Annan Centre of excellence in ICT hosted launch of the initiative

and is receiving that maximum support of institutions throughout ECOWAS. The

deputy minister of communication in a statement said “The capacity – building

dimension of Open Source Technologies can make a real difference in the speed

with which we can achieve our technology goals through innovation. We need to

reduce dependency on technologies that have not been developed for needs and

working environment. He noted that as government plan for expenditure on ICT in

the context of tighter budgetary restrictions it is important that member

states have a better understanding of the possibilities that Open Source offer

to deliver better value for money in e – governance including critical areas

such education, health and agriculture. “This is no doubt one of the reasons

that the initiative is supported by the ECOWAS Commission. Gideon Quarcoo expressed

his expectation for the initiative and urged member states to raise public

awareness of the use of Open Source, build capacity both at the individual and

institutional level, to promote localization, research and development on Open

Source across the countries, to systematically examine issues of vendor lock-

in interoperability and Total Cost of Ownership and finally document experience

in software implementation for proprietary and open source developments as well

as those instance where the two approaches are blended. The deputy minister for

communication also challenged member states to ensure that the work of the open

source resource centre – West Africa promotes collaboration between software

companies internationally, so that software companies owned by Africans also

grow and create jobs for the talented African youth. In an exclusive interview

with Patrick Asford Boadu the Director for community computer centre at the

office of the vice president for Economic Community West African states,

ECOWAS, Commission, Dr. Shola Afolabi, stressed that the initiative will create

job opportunities for youth in the member states. Dr. Shola Afolabi noted that

the open source initiative is highly affordable, transparent and sustainable.

e-mail address : asfordboadu@yahoo.com