E-gov project makes headway
Twenty one community information centres are to be constructed under the phase 2 of the e-government project, the Minister of Communication, Dr Edward Omane- Boamah has said.
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The areas earmarked for this project include Nandom, Nabdam, Drobonso, Effiduase, Bodi, Twifo Atti Morkwa, Glefe, Abokobi, Keta, Bator, Nalerigu, Sanarigu, and other locations in the country
He said the project, which had already started, was scheduled for completion by the end of 2014 and was being spearheaded by the Ministry of Communications in partnership with the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), Huawei technologies and Ghana Post Company Limited.
The Director General of NITA, Mr William Tevie, told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in an interview on March 17, that the objective of the whole project was to facilitate easy access to information services provided by government agencies.
According to him, the e-government project which started in 2006, had witnessed the establishment of data centres and other Information Communication Technology (ICT) programmes to facilitate easy delivery of services.
“In terms of what we have done so far, we have built data centres, WIFI centres, and 4G networks, laid fibre optic lines in most parts of the country as well as provided training for other government-sector workers,” he said.
Funding for the whole project comprised a US$150 million loan from the Chinese EXIM Bank, with a US$30million concessionary bit; a US$40million loan from the World Bank and recently, some €37million concessionary loan from the Danish government.
The first phase of the project, apart from the one-stop service centre, also provides tele-presence, call centre for e-government services, metro fibre, Local Area Network for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), a secondary data centre in Kumasi, supply of desktop computers and other ICT terminal equipments.
Huawei’s contribution
According to the Managing Director of Huawei, Mr Russell Xu, the company had played a major role in the e-government project of the Government of Ghana, deploying technology infrastructure.
Huawei has assisted the government to implement projects such as the National Backbone Transmission project and the comprehensive e-government platform projects.
The company is also undertaking an LTE Network upgrade and has also completed data centres in Accra and Kumasi.