Three Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centres were on Monday inaugurated at Akyem Asuom, Akyem Awisa and Suhum in the Eastern Region.
Under the implementing agency, Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC), the facilities, form part of a broader initiative to expand ICT education in the country.
It is also to facilitate the provision of universal access of the facility to all persons and encourage the youth, especially girls to participate in a digitised world.
Inaugurating the centres, the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, stated that the facilities would improve teaching and learning in schools in the communities.
She said students as well as community members would have access to ICT devices that would enable them to continue practicing and get access to all sort of learning resources to make them technologically inclined.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful stated that “traders can access the facility to engage in e-commence, farmers can access the facility to learn about agricultural technologies and community members can also access the facility for e-health, where they can call doctors and speak to them about their health.”
She indicated that there were enormous benefits to the ICT centres constructed and called on community members to help protect and maintain the facility.
To ensure quality maintenance, she said that a Sustainability Management Committee, made up of community members with broad knowledge in ICT, had been inaugurated to ensure proper maintenance of the facility and help in its use.
The minister added that government was poised to intensify the expansion of ICT centres to enable universal access to all persons, and especially involving more girls in ICT to ensure they were not left behind.
On his part, the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Seth Acheampong, expressed happiness about the construction of the ICT facilities and stated that it would benefit children in the communities.
He said students would be able to go through learning and practices to help them become technologically inclined, and be better and good stewards of the state.
The regional minister reiterated the need for such ICT facilities in a world where technology had become the order of the day and thanked the stakeholders for ensuring such facilities were constructed, furnished and commissioned for the benefit of community members.
The Chief Executive Officer of GIFEC, Mr Prince Ofosu-Sefa, said his agency would continue to ensure the expansion of ICT centres in all communities in the country.
The Chief of Akyem Asuom, Osabarima Ofosuhene Appenteng II was grateful to the minister and all stakeholders for the ICT facility and stated that it would help broaden community members’ knowledge in ICT.
He said he would ensure that the facility was protected and maintained to serve the future generation.
FROM AMA TEKYIWAA AMPADU AGYEMAN, KOFORIDUA
