Issue Seven - Conversations on Technology, Business and Society

36
Community Information Centre (CIC) Project
ICTs
have played transformational roles in the
development of economies worldwide.
Ghana’s own effort in exploiting ICTs as
enabler of socio-economic development is demonstrated in the
development of Ghana’s ICT4AD Policy document that sets the
broad framework for all government-led ICT interventions.
The Community Information Centre (CIC) project is an ICT
intervention, under the ICT4AD programme, that is targeted
at the “Deployment and Spread of ICTs in the Community”
pillar of the ICT4AD policy document. It is a community based
project that deploys ICT infrastructure and suitable applications
to communities, and develops general and specialized
employable ICT skills; such as data entry and desktop
publishing, at the district and community levels. The project
is not only to provide citizenries with ICT skills and access to
the internet, but to also promote the exploitation of ICTs as an
alternative source of livelihood, especially for the youth, and for
economic sustainability of beneficiary communities as a whole.
The UNDP has been a partner with the Government of
Ghana in this endeavour since 2006; contributing its financial
resources, and valuable experience in capacity development
and knowledge sharing to deepen the development impact
and sustainability of the project. With UNDP’s support, over School children during an ICT training session at Nkawie CIC
80 CIC managers have been trained in the management of ICT
centres, and over 700 officers of decentralized government
institutions have also been trained nationwide in the use of
ICTs to expedite the delivery of government services at the
district and community levels. There are over 70 functional CICs
nationwide.
The inclusion of ICT in the Ghana educational curriculum
has further intensified the demand on the CICs to respond
to the needs of less privileged schools in the teaching and
learning of the ICT component of the educational curriculum.
Over the past 2 years, the CICs have played a significant role in
the implementation of the ICT component of the educational
curriculum, as schools in the beneficiary communities use the
centres as their computer labs.
In the quiet, small town of Nkawie; the district capital of the
Atwima Nkwabiagya District, about 60Km from Kumasi, the
CIC is exploited to provide access to ICT education for basic
and Junior High School (JHS) children. The Centre organizes IT
practical sessions for student from 12 beneficiary schools in and
around Nkawie. “Whilst some of the schools including Nkawie
DA Primary & JHS and Toase DA JHS are located at walking
distances away from the centre, students from other schools
including Nkwakom DA Primary, Amanchie DA Primary & JHS, Members of Saltpond CIC ICT club using the Science, Math and English
Kobeng Primary & JHS, Nkorang RC Primary School, and Nkorang educational program and games at Saltpond CIC