Microsoft holds NGOs Connection Day in Accra

The Microsoft has held a Non-Governmental Organisation Connection Day in Accra.

The event, which was aimed at encouraging participants to be strategic in choosing their social media, also served as a platform to demonstrate how the Microsoft Outlook could be used to chat, search, and carry out multipurpose activities

The event brought together about 50 participants from NGOs such as K-iNET, PLAN Ghana, Christian Relief Services, DFID and TECH AIDE.

Speaking on the topic: “How Microsoft support NGOs”, Mr Ngo Nwosu explained the various ways Microsoft gives aids to non-profits groups through providing support, advice and capacity building.

He said such services were not given to governmental organizations but rather to registered NGOs and other individuals.

Mr Nwosu advised participating NGOs to network saying “the more we work together, the more we would achieve our aims”.

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Ghana urged to invest in space science and technology

A Ghanaian Engineer, Mr. Manfred Quarshie, has urged the country to demonstrate strong commitment towards the exploitation of space technology.

This, he said, would aid the development of innovative and cutting-edge research in the areas of meteorology, environmental management, territorial monitoring, national security surveillance, agriculture and medicine.

Mr. Quarshie, who heads the Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory (ISSL) of the All Nations University College (ANUC), said space technology needed to be applied for the solution of local problems.

He was speaking at a seminar organized on the ANUC’s Ground Station and Earth Observation satellite projects in Kumasi by the Africa Media Consult (AMC), a research-based organization.

These projects are being undertaken by the ISSL under the auspices of the Ministry of Science and Technology for educational and research purposes.

The Ground Station would serve as a centre for receiving data from space, whilst the Earth Observation satellite would monitor the environment.

Mr. Quarshie said the ISSL’s recently launched programme - “CanSat” is aimed at providing engineering students with the opportunity to acquire basic knowledge in space engineering and expose them to engineering challenges in the building of a satellite.

He appealed to corporate bodies to be supportive of the projects because of the tremendous benefits to the nation as well as science and technology education.

Nana Michael Ampong, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the AMC, called for massive investment in science education to address development challenges.

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GTUC to set up ICT incubation centres

The Ghana Technology University College (GTUC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Jospong Group of Companies to establish Information and Communication Technology (ICT) incubation centres across the country.

Graduates from such centres would have access to critical information, office space and secretarial support, education, contacts, capital and resources crucial to the growth of businesses.

At the signing ceremony on Monday, Dr Osei Darkwa, President of GTUC said the collaboration was unique because this was the first time a university has teamed up with a private company to put up such centres.

He said incubates would be in ICT, mobile applications, nanotechnology, new material technologies, biotechnology and environmental technologies, among others.

The President noted that the collaboration would provide a platform for the incubation of ideas and financial resources to graduates from such centres.

This, he observed, would facilitate self development of technology solutions that would address challenges confronting the country.

Dr Darkwa added that the centre would help unleash the innovation and creativity in students, often embedded in their thesis, that are kept on shelves and left to collect dust.

He wondered why after 56 years of independence, Ghana still struggles to find solutions to various fundamental challenges; access to clean drinking water, power availability, poverty, illiteracy and access to jobs.

He observed that some of the solutions to the nation’s problems were hidden in students’ thesis, yet a sizeable number of these students sit at home writing applications for nonexistent jobs while others join the Association of Graduate Unemployment.

Mr Emmanuel Anane Boate, Chief Operating Officer of Jospon Group of companies signed on behalf of the company.

Speaking on behalf of the Executive Chairman of the company, Mr Boate said the drastic transformation of Ghana’s economy required professionals with market-driven skills and practical hands-on experience, adding that, there was the need for the integration of job and learning.

Mr Boate said it was on that platform the company was partnering with the university to provide the needed career training setup lines and work with the school, students and graduates to develop their research works into viable economic projects.

He said the company would provide the corporate working environment tied up to learning to help prepare graduates to meet industry requirements.

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Government To Transform IT Infrastructure – Ms Hammah

Ms Victoria Hammah, Deputy Minister of Communication, said the Ministry is facilitating the vision of Government to develop policies, regulations and programmes to transform Ghana.

She said the transformation would make the country self sufficient, cost-effective and accessible to Information Technology (IT) infrastructure to propel the appropriate use of technological applications and innovations to enhance socio-economic development.

Ms Hammah was speaking at the Information System Audit and Control Association (ISACA) IT Audit Information Security and Risk Insight Africa 2013 Summit in Accra.

She said Government is committed to use modern technologies that would contribute massively to the country’s economic development and support stakeholders to develop and use the globally accepted industry-practices for information systems.

Ms Hammah said Government is having short, medium and long term plans to streamline the regulatory and enforcement regime for IT Governance, ICT system security and management.

She said Government has also set the minimum guidelines for the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and other Agencies, to prepare adequately to meet exigencies of IT usage.

She said to attain these goals, the National Information Technology Agency under the Ministry of Communication has set up a Computer Emergency Response Team, to help deal with emergencies and cyber attacks.

Ms Hammah said ICT is acknowledged globally as the agents of change, reform and innovation and it is fundamentally important that Ghana continue to highlight its role in the business development processes.

She said Information Security and Risk Insight is the most current topic in the world of business because of the impact IT has on the day-to-day running of an organisation

Ms Hammah said, to promote an enabling legal environment in support of the IT industry, the Ministry is facilitating IT-enabled business investments to sustain growth and transform critical areas of national organisations.

“Government recognise the critical dependence of many business processes on IT, and the need to keep up with the ever changing trends and also to comply with the benefits of managing risk effectively,” she said.

She noted that even though a lot of progress has been made in the ICT regulatory regime in Ghana, there are gaps such as cyber security and cyber crimes and plans are advance by the Ministry to address the issue.

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Asantehene urges aggressive promotion of ICT

Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, has called for the inclusion of Information Communication Technology (ICT) into the training programmes of the vocational and technical institutions.

He noted that ICT skills would be an advantage to the trainees given the fact that contemporary vocational and technical education had become more knowledge-based.

They would become better equipped to favourably compete on the job market, he said in a speech read for him at the inauguration of a computer laboratory built at the Ramseyer Vocational Technical Institute (RVTI) at Kyirapatre in Kumasi.

The project was implemented through the institute’s own internally-generated-fund and support from the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) and philanthropists.

The Asantehene underlined the need for the government to allocate more funds to strengthen vocational/technical education to help tackle the growing youth unemployment.

He said the secret to socio-economic and technological advancement of countries like Germany had been the huge investment in technical and polytechnic education and Ghana could learn from that.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu II praised the RVTI for the good job it was doing to provide the youth with employable skills.

The Reverend Samuel Ayeh-Hanson, Principal of the Institute, said some new courses including building draughtsmanship, auto-mechanics, decoration and construction would be introduced, this academic year.

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Ghana To Host Major ITU Conference

The Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-14) has been slated for October 2 to 4, 2013.

The WTDC is held every four years by the ITU to identify priorities for the development of telecommunications and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs).

It also takes into account contributions made by Member States and Sector Members, and comes out with an Action Plan, setting the future of activities of the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D) over the next four-year period.

At a media briefing in Accra, Minister for Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah said Ghana was confirmed at the 2013 Session of the ITU Council to host the Regional Development Forum (RDF) for Africa on October 1, 2013.

The conference in Accra he explained would prepare the African delegations to build consensus and adopt common positions on the agenda items that will benefit Africa ahead of the ITU’s 6th World Telecommunication Development Conference from March 31 to April 11, 2014.

The event will be held at the Accra International Conference Centre and an exhibition of technology to expose the sophistication of the ICT landscape will be mounted to demonstrate the sector’s accomplishments and benefits of reforms commenced in 1994 when Ghana possessed less than 68,000 Direct Exchange Lines (DELs).

In accordance with the conventions and procedures of the ITU, pre-registration is being carried out exclusively online through Designated Focal Points (DFP) to enable participation in the RPM and RDF.

Dr Omane Boamah explained that the request for participation in Ghana must therefore, be submitted to the Ministry of Communications for registration as early as possible.

“We look forward to provide the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality to the arriving delegations from ITU, Africa and the World and we expect that the consensus on the issues to be reached in Accra will receive overwhelming endorsement when presented to the World Telecommunication Development Conference in 2014,” he said.

He said to facilitate consensus building; the ITU is organizing, ahead of the meeting, the Regional Development Forum (RDF) as a platform for open dialogues, cooperation and partnerships among telecommunication/ICT policy makers, regulators, industry, academia, regional and international development agencies and organizations on specific regional ICT issues.

The ITU is the global and specialized agency of the United Nations with a membership of 191 States, with responsibility for the regulation, standardization, co-ordination and development of international telecommunications.

Its antecedents can be traced to 1865 when the first International Telegraph Convention was signed, giving birth to the International Telegraph Union, and subsequently to the signing in 1906 of the first International Radiotelegraph Convention.

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KNUST Introduces Cassava Harvesters For Farmers

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology has introduced new technology to be used in harvesting cassava.

Five of the new Cassava harvesters have been presented by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, C.S.I.R. to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Speaking at a short ceremony in Accra, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Clement Kofi Humado, said the equipment was in line with the ministry’s policy to promote cassava production, processing and marketing.

“For some time now cassava cultivation has predominantly been practised on a subsistence scale with the application of rudimentary technology, resulting in low productivity", the Minister said.

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