The Ghana- India Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) yesterday began a two- week entrance examination for its first batch of students in Accra.

About 300 candidates applied to take part in the entrance examination. The centre is situated near the state House in Accra.

The Assistant Marketing Manager of the Centre, Mr Frank Ankamah, said that “on the average, abut 300 candidates are expected to take part in he examination daily”.

He told the ‘Times’ that the selection of candidates for the examination was done through newspaper advertisement.

Mr Ankamah said “ECOWAS Ministers of Education who recently visited Ghana had expressed interest in the programme and are ready to bring students from their respective countries to enroll at the centre.

The Centre, he said, is determined to close the gap between academia and industry. Thus, it has recruited experienced Ghanaian lecturers trained in India to handle the courses.

He also said he centre has experience counsellors assist the students in the selection of appropriate courses, adding that “we want everybody to have good value for monies paid”.

Mr Ankamah stated that student would have two hours of lectures and three hours of laboratory practice and “they will have the opportunity to pay the fees by installment”.

The post-graduate diploma in advanced computing programme will run for nine months at annual at the cost of ?19 million per student while the diploma in systems programming will be run for seven months at the cost of ? 11.4 million per student. The diploma in a business computing course is for four months at the cost of ? 7.1 million per student per annum.

Other courses include diploma in web technologies which will run for four months at ? 7.1 million; diploma in MS Net will also run for six months at ? 10.4 million whilst the certificate course in object oriented programming will run for two months at the cost of ? 3.5 million per student.

The centre is expected to produce high- level hands- on, market ready ICT graduates and knowledge entrepreneurs for Ghana, West Africa and beyond. It will further assist Ghana in producing highly skilled, knowledge entrepreneurs, IT engineers, and administrators project managers to meet the growing demand both in Ghana and beyond.