05:41 a.m. Mar 17, 1999 Eastern

By Els Botje

ACCRA, March 17 - Network Computer Services Limited (NCS), Ghana's oldest and biggest Internet service provider, sees enormous potential for growth in the West African country if the state continues to give priority to education.

``The limiting factor is human resource capability. If we increase that, growth might be 100 percent or even 300 percent,'' NCS chairman Nii Narku Quaynor told Reuters in an interview.

The climate for Internet use in Ghana was good, Quaynor said, noting that the government of President Jerry Rawlings saw the funding of educational institutions as a priority.

NCS started life in 1995 and now has over 6,000 subscribers, growing at 50 percent a year. It has two local rivals, Africa Online and Internet Ghana, and claims 50 percent of the market.

NCS is Ghanaian-owned with a staff of 70 and Quaynor says it was the first company to offer Internet access in West Africa.

It has its own earth station with a capacity of 512 Kbps and provides corporate Internet access via microwave links.

NCS had turnover of 2.4 billion cedis ($1 million) in the year to end-March 1997 and is growing at an annual rate of over 30 percent. ``All growth is self-financed,'' Quaynor said.

U.S.-educated and believed to be the first Ghanaian to get a computer science degree, Quaynor was an academic and consultant, before setting up an information technology network for state-owned Ghana National Petroleum Company from 1990 and then deciding to start his own computer business.

``The struggle was how to build such an institution at a time when most people here had no clue what the technology was about,'' Quaynor said.

``The fact that we are now one of the largest companies in West Africa means that Ghana was receptive,'' he added.

Quaynor says he is driven by altruistic motives.

``We have several downstream providers below us, we have the philosophy to let other Internet service providers emerge.''

``Our motive is not business, but a social cause to make sure that the country has IT and Internet services,'' Quaynor said.

``If Ghana is to be the Singapore of Africa, I need the people trained at all levels. Not 5,000 or 500, but a million a year. That is my mission, and that is why I am here.''

($ - 2,400 cedis)