Prof. Atta Mills ICT Centre inaugurated at Huni-Valley
A new Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Centre named after President John Evans Atta Mills has been inaugurated at Huni-Valley in the Western Region.
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The US$134, 000 facility was constructed at the Methodist Basic School, where President Atta Mills started his education.
The project was funded by Gold Fields Ghana (GFG) Foundation as the company's contribution towards immortalising the late president.
President Mills was born at Huni-Valley, also called Bosomtwe, about 30 kilometers from Tarkwa, the capital of the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality, about 10 km from the Damang Mine of GFG, where his father was a teacher.
GFG pledge
When President Mills passed away a little over two years ago, GFG pledged to preserve his memory, with the hope that members of the Huni-Valley community and beyond would be inspired by what he was able to achieve.
The idea of an ICT centre, in the area of education, therefore, aligns perfectly with one of the key focus of GFG.
In an address read for him by the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Mr Akwasi Oppong-Fosu, at the hand over of the facility to the Ghana Education Service (GES), President John Dramani Mahama said the rationale behind the project was to immortalise the memory of President Mills.
"The occasion is a memorable one as it reminds us of the sad demise of the former President, His Excellency Prof J.E.A. Mills. I would have wished that the late professor were alive to inaugurate this project which has been built and donated to a school he attended and a community he lived in as a child. But God loves him even more than we do. May his soul rest in perfect peace,” he said.
The President described President Mills as a disciplined, God-fearing and peace-loving man, a patriot and intellectually honest, who stood for excellence and had a passion for the promotion of youth development, adding that he aspired to see Ghana as a country of prosperity for all.
ICT
The President said beyond honouring the memory of the late President, the facility was also meant to improve upon the performance of pupils in the area of ICT, which was now examinable at the Basic Certificate Examination (BECE) level.
He said that was an important contribution to the efforts of the government towards the development of science and technology.
The President said ICT, which was part of and product of science and technology, was an important instrument for stimulating social and economic activities as it facilitated access, acquisition and dissemination of knowledge, skills and technology.
Mr Mahama further noted that with the establishment of the centre, the people of Huni-Valley, particularly the youth, had been provided with a platform to compete, innovate, create, learn and connect with the rest of the world.
GFG community investment
Mr Alfred Baku, the Executive Vice President and Head of West Africa, GFG, announced that about a third of the company's community investment went into education.
To date, he said, the GFG had spent over US$8 million in education, providing infrastructure, scholarships, bursaries, educational materials, teacher training programmes and incentive schemes in stakeholder communities.
Besides education, Mr Baku said more than US$25 million, which the company had so far spent on community programmes and infrastructure, had helped to improve the quality of lives of residents of the community, and that more were expected from his outfit.
The Omanhen of the area, Dr Osagyefo Kwamena Enimil VI, who chaired the function, and the chief of Bosomtwe, appealed to the President to seriously consider tackling the deteriorated road network in the area.