CICs are bedrock for rural connectivity to global market - Attor

Mr. Kofi Attor, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) has tasked Managers of Community Information Centre (CIC) to use their facilities to ensure rural connectivity to the global market.

“Explore all the potential of Information Communication and Technology platforms to promote and project the potentials of rural communities and use ICT to provide rural people with instant information on what their counterparts in other countries are doing.

“The world is at your door step, draw them to your tourists’ sites, farm products, tell your story to the world and let your people know developments around them,” Mr. Attor stated at the end of a two day capacity workshop for District Information Officers and Managers of CIC in Accra.

The workshop was organized by the Ministry of Communications, through its agency GIFEC, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the Ministry of Information, and supported by the Ghana Multimedia Incubator Service.

Mr. Attor tasked managers of the CIC stations to sensitize District Assembly members, government officials, farmers, traders, teachers and students on the use of the internet to communicate in a two-way process in which data and information are sent and received between two and more parties.

“Knowledge and understanding about how data and information is used will create the necessary synergies for empowerment as well as improvement in the livelihoods rural communities,” Mr. Attor who is also GIFEC Administrator stated.

He urged District Information Officers and CIC Managers to search for new and better ways to harness the power of Information Technology (IT) which should aimed at meeting the economic, social, educational and development objectives of the people.

The GIFEC Administrator reminded the Managers and Information Officers that the CICs are innovative ways of addressing the multiple challenges confronting rural populations under a single roof, providing simple, single-point access to information and services to rural people.

These centres serve as electronic libraries where people from remotely located areas can look up information about topics such as farming, education and healthcare.

Alhaji Botingnaa M. B. Alhassan, Coordinating Director of Local Government Service (LGS), said the Local Government Service Council has adopted ICT policy to ensure that local government services are automated and computerized to promote local and national development.

He said LGS in collaboration with UNDP are working to provide internet access to all district assemblies in the country and also to automate the human resources data for effective human resources management.

“As the newest public service organization, the new responsibility imposed on the Service in terms of documentation, information sharing and management of personnel of decentralized departments, led to the preparation of a scheme of service that recognises the need for the application of IT.

“A career path in IT and information management can be taken at LGS with a clear opportunities for progression…the basic entry point for ICT category of Staff is a Data Entry Clerk through Assistant Director of Management Information Systems to Director Management Information Systems.

He reminded District Information Officers and CIC Managers that the use of traditional methods of information dissemination at the district levels is no longer sufficient.

“The use of ICT for information gathering, multimedia packaging and dissemination has become the order of the day,” he stated, and tasked the officers to take full advantage of the system.

The CIC’s are not profit-oriented, but do charge basic fees for their services. Web-browsing at some non-commercial centres with donor support is priced usually at the same level as web-browsing at the commercial centres.**