More rural business centres for Ghana

The centres, established under the Ghana Telecom's eCommerce and Renewable Energy (eCARE) programme has been running since 2003 with just about three of such centres piloted as of 2005.

The centres were designed and established with similar objectives behind the government's efforts to construct and manage Community Information Centres (CICs) in all the 230 political constituencies in the country.

The objectives are to educate and inform the rural communities on issues such as health, education, agriculture and gender, among others, and also to train the people.

The major objective for the establishment of the RBCs is to bridge the digital divide between the urban and rural communities and also to ensure that the whole of the country becomes part of the networked economy.

The most recent of the RBCs under the eCARE programme was commissioned last week at Abokobi, a peri-urban community in the Ga South district of the Greater Accra region.

The RBCs are made up of refurbished 20 footer shipping containers equipped with telephones, multi-media computers, copiers, scanners, printers and solar panels.

Centres commissioned recently have broadband-supported internet and e-learning facilities to make them more attractive to users and to become more relevant in the face of stiff competition from mobile phones.

Entrepreneurial managers to give back

The eCARE centres are managed by entrepreneurs who are screened, trained and expected to make some monetary commitments in order to become part owners of the centres and thereby ensure that they are profitable.

The managers are expected to own the centres over time as profits from the running of the RBCs will be used to pay back the investment costs to the eCARE programme to be invested in other projects.

Partners in the establishment of the eCARE centres include the United Nations Foundation, UN Environment Programme and the Kumasi Institute of Technology and Environment.

More partners including the UNDP are the latest institutions to collaborate with existing partners to establish five more centres at Techimantia, Nadowli, Tumu, Omanjour and Abokobi. The first four communities are located in the Brong Ahafo, Upper East, Upper West and the Greater Accra regions respectively.

The Ghana Commercial Bank and the Information Technology-Enabled Services of the Ministry of Communications also supporting the initiative to extend ICTs to rural communities.

In a most recent development, the Ghana Investment Fund for Telecom Operators (GIFTEL), administrators of the CICs, have come into an agreement with eCARE to collaborate in extending ICTs to community centres in the very remote areas which do not have electricity.

A new technology-oriented university yet to be commissioned is also lending support to the eCARE programme with the e-learning materials to make the RBCs a one stop shop for all ICT services.

The overall benefits of the establishment of the RBCs include the provision of increased access to affordable Information and communication technology services in Ghana's rural and peri-urban communities, bridging the digital and energy divide, providing income to the rural youth and reducing poverty in the rural communities which are homes to about 60% of the estimated 20 million population of Ghana.

The programme will also increase access to computers, create awareness on ICTs in underserved-communities and offer business opportunities for entrepreneurs living in rural communities.

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