National Data Centre to be established to support BPO industry

Accra, Nov. 10, GNA - A National Data Centre is to be established to support the development of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in the country. It would be the nation's information hub as well as data for Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDA) to prevent future misfortunes. The BPO industry is an information technology service in which clients from other parts of the world sub-contract services that they have low competitive advantage to local firms who have high competitive advantage. This was announced by Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communications, when he inaugurated the nine-member Second Court of Governors of the Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in Information and Communication Technology (KACE) in Accra on Tuesday.

Mr Kweku Dua Danquah is Chairman of the Court of Governors and members are Mr Gideon Quarcoo, Deputy Minister of Communications, Ms Dorothy Gordon, Director General of KACE, Ms Estelle Appiah, Director, Legislative Drafting, Attorney-General's Department and Mr. Yaw Benneh. The rest are Professor Ansu Kyeremeh, a Communication Consultant, Mr. Henry Kojo Agbai, Dr. Imoro Braimah and Mrs. Mary Tackie. The court is to develop strategies to bridge the gap between ICT, academia and the multimedia industry for graduates to be able to go through KACE's specialised training in hardware and software development, including open source applications to solve industrial problems. Mr. Iddrisu tasked members to offer strategic direction to the centre as part of government's efforts of bridging the digital gap to facilitate its development agenda. He said their key responsibilities would include developing Ghana's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) research base to attract collaborations with world class ICT researchers and establish itself as a focal point for multimedia innovation in Africa. Mr Iddrisu pointed out that the court had been mandated to institute policies that would enable the centre to complement and support postgraduate ICT programmes offered by the universities in Information Management Systems.

He said it would also offer a specialised undergraduate and postgraduate hand-on programme in ICT and related fields. Mr Iddrisu said the court would be required to submit to government innovative proposals to enhance the service delivery of government machinery and contribute to the multimedia industry to enhance economic growth. He said: "The court is challenged with evolving a policy for the centre to help build capacity in ICT with governmental levels and the civil societies at large emphasising on capacity development for women entrepreneurs. "The centre is tasked to produce highly skilled hands-on ICT Engineers network administrators, project managers and technicians to meet the growing demand in the market". With regard to international relations, Mr Iddrisu urged the court to position the centre's human resource development as a regional programme on the scholarship agenda of international bodies including Economic Commission for Africa, Africa Telecommunications Union and Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation. He challenged the court to develop policies towards the development of a local and external faculty to sustain the academic programme of the centre. Mr Iddrisu said, the court was expected to develop appropriate policies to boost the centre's revenue generation potential to make it self sustaining by extending its marketing prospect to the sub-region. Mr Danquah pledged the commitment of members to work hard to achieve the set objectives. 10 Nov. 09