Gov’t to continue to provide ICT entrepreneurship – Minister

Dr Edward Omane Boamah, Minister of Communications, said Government would continue to provide an enabling environment for Information Communication Technology (ICT) entrepreneurship to thrive.

He said the Ministry of Communications is revising Ghana's ICT Policy as part of Government efforts to enhance ICT entrepreneurship and to address contemporary technology trends and threats in addition to environmental issues.

Dr Boamah said this at the graduation ceremony of 193 trainees of the Advance Information Technology Institute of Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence (KACE) in ICT on the theme: "ICT Entrepreneurship: 93Exploring Opportunities for National Development,=94 in Accra on Saturday.

The graduands underwent a Cisco Certified Network Association, Diploma in Advance Computing, Post-Graduate Diploma in Wireless and Mobile Computing, Web Application Development and Fundamentals of software Development.

He said ICT has rapidly become the beacon for growth and development and that most countries including Ghana have instituted supporting policies and programmes aimed at boosting their ICT sectors to enable it serve as the engine of economic growth and wealth creation.

Dr Boamah said Government is working on the deployment of various Information Technology (IT) applications which include e-Payment, e-Procurement, e-Immigration, e-Parliament, e-Cabinet and e Justice.

He said Government is ensuring that 40 per cent of local content participation in the 123 million dollars financing agreement between Ghana and China Exam Bank is delivered a dedicated secured communication system by ZTE to the public sector.

Dr Boamah noted that there are numerous opportunities for ICT entrepreneurs and engineers in the 97 million dollars e-Transform Project which was approved by the World Bank in October.

Ms Dorothy Gordon, Director General of KACE said there is the need for Africa to focus more on how ICT could develop the continent.

She said Ghanaian IT companies and specialist product are competing in the global market and this shows that there is improvement in the training of ICT in the country.

Ms Dorothy said the performance by the companies is a measure for financial institutions to help IT companies with financing in order to meet their demands and overcome global challenges.

She said what KACE has different from other ICT institutions is the personal mentoring of students that its gives to its trainees and the professionalism they exhibits in their various fields.

Mr Philip Sowed, Chairman of the ceremony and Managing Director of Airtel Ghana, said people are now interested is degrees than the knowledge they acquire and charged the graduands not to subtract from what they learn but add up to the knowledge they acquire.

The Institute was established 10 years ago under the partnership of the Mr Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary General and Indian Government to provide ICT knowledge to Ghanaians and Africans.