Village eStrategies VICIs: The case of Ghana AMANOKROM PROJECT

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Village e-Strategies (VICIs) The case of Ghana
- AMANOKROM PROJECT

• Mr. Ayesu Ebenezer
• Ghana

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Background

• Ghana recognizes that to modernize and develop
  its economy and society in the emerging
  information and technological age, the nation
  will need to embrace ICTs
• Ghanas vision is to improve the quality of
  life of the people of Ghana by significantly
  enriching their social, economic and cultural
  well-being through the rapid development and
  modernization of economic and society using ICTs
  as the main engine for accelerated and
  sustainable economic and social development
• VICI Amanokrom is a response to take the
  national vision to the rural community the
  basis of Ghanaian society

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Amanokrom
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Objectives

• Develop human resources
• Generate job opportunities
• Advance economic development
• Help build and sustain good governance as a tool
  for peaceful co-existence

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Choice of the Area

• Historical
• Spread of education cocoa
• Technical
• Presence of basic infrastructure as far as
  information communication is concerned
• The area forms part of both the national
  electricity and conventional telephone networks
• The area as a catchment to cover wider
  educational, health, agricultural, recreational
  and other imp. sectors of society
• The area has its share of ethnic conflicts but
  manages to get back to normal life
• The communitys own readiness to own and operate
  an ICT facility
• Supervision and monitoring
• The closeness of the area to Legon, the base of
  the project team

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The Process

• Notification and consultations

Methodology

• Interviews
• Administration of questionnaire
• Participant observation
• Archival search

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Developmental challenges 1/2

• Relatively high population growth rate 2.5 ( a
  reflection of the national picture)
• Relatively youthful population
• High illiteracy rate with about 40 of the
  population above age six years without any form
  of formal education
• The community is part of a country situation
  where about 40 live below the poverty line (less
  than US1)

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Developmental challenges 2/2

• Amanokrom has a mainly subsistence agricultural
  based economy. In addition, about 70 of the
  total agricultural workforce is illiterate. It
  is significant to note that women constitute the
  highest percentage of the workforce
• Amanokrom has a narrow industrial base
• An informal private sector hardly possessing any
  potential to generate additional jobs
• A dynamic service sector and an enhanced research
  and development capacity

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Priority Focus Areas

• A Globally Competitive Local ICT Industry
• A critical aspect of the growth and
  development of key areas of the Amanokrom
  political economy involves the development of
  globally competitive local ICT industry expressly
  focused on the development, production and
  distribution of information, knowledge, and
  technology products and services. The key areas
  are
• Human Resource Development
• Education
• Agriculture
• The private sector
• Local governance and administration
• Health

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Findings 1/3

• The needs assessment was done to find out the
  existing ICT resources and potential in
  Amanokrom. The main findings of the needs
  assessment are
• There are some ICT infrastructures in place.
  Viz, telephones facilities, radio (fm and am),
  cyber cafés, and communication centers. Out of
  the 373 respondents, 197 representing 52.8 have
  access to mobile telephones, 264 i.e. 70.8 have
  access to fixed line phones, 344 i.e. 92.2 have
  access to television, 363 i.e. 97.3 radio, 149
  i.e. 39.9 to computers, 48 i.e. 12.9 to fax
  machines and 267 i.e. 71.6 to video

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Findings 2/3

• There is low computer literacy rate amongst
  respondents. This is evident in the study only
  20.4 of the total respondents are computer
  literate
• Most respondents were of the view that ICT can
  help them in their socio-economic activities. Of
  the 373 people interviewed, 80 i.e. 21.4 used
  computers for research 81 i.e. 21.7 use
  computers for business and secretarial services
  39 i.e. 10.6 use computers for communication, 21
  i.e. 5.6 use computers for entertainment, whilst
  180 i.e. 48.3 had no idea whatsoever

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Findings 3/3

• The study found that more men than women use
  ICTs. 60 of the respondents support this
  assertion. Also it was found that of the 221
  respondents who had heard of ICT 94 were women
  which is not a bad figure especially at the
  village level where the woman occupies a
  subordinate position in society because of her
  higher domestic workload, unemployment,
  illiteracy, poverty and lack of access to power
  and decision making
• Amanokrom like the rest of Ghana has a large
  percentage of its people below age 31. Out of
  the 373 respondents 66.8 falls within this group
  

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Ownership

• Communities
• Project management

Recommendation

• Project to be implemented

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Thank You !