Kofi Annan Centre receives $1 million grant from India

The Indian Government, through its Centre for the Development of Advanced Computing (CEDAC), has given the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE) a $1million grant to strengthen ICT research and innovation in the country.

It is also to support the training and capacity building of Ghanaians.

The presentation coincided with the 150th birthday anniversary of one of the founding fathers of the state of India, Mahatma Gandhi.

The Indian High Commissioner in Accra, Mr Birender Singh Yadav, who presented a dummy cheque for the amount in Accra, talked about Gandhi and the strides India was making in development and technological innovation.

He urged the Ministry of Communications to expedite action on a memorandum of understanding between India and Ghana to facilitate the rollout of a pan-African e-learning medical programme by which medical skills and expertise could be beamed to doctors and medical students in Ghana.

He also urged the centre to expedite action on a memorandum of understanding that would define the terms of the disbursement and releases from the grant.

Follow India’s example

The Deputy Minister of Communications, Mr Vincent Sowah Odotei, who received the cheque on behalf of the AITI-KACE, said the government’s development agenda of Ghana Beyond Aid had ICT innovative solutions at its core.

The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, during whose tenure as Ghana’s High Commissioner in India, the AITI-KACE was built and who was present at the ceremony, urged Ghanaians to emulate India’s example in innovation and how Indians patronised their own manufactured products.

Prof. Oquaye was hopeful that the collaboration would position the AITI-KACE as a sterling institution of ICT training and standards in the country.

Grant is timely

The Director General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, Mr Kwasi Adu-Gyan, said the grant had come at an opportune time and would entrench the relationship between the centre and India.

He added that it would go a long way to build the capacity of the centre in training and advance its capacity-building effort.

“What makes us happy is the use to which this fund would be put in quality training, the development of human resource in ICT and support the government in e-technology,” he said.

Mr Adu-Gyan hinted that the AITI-KACE was working on a law to cover its operations and appealed for the centre to be made autonomous to enable it to generate revenue.