The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), on behalf of Vice President John Dramani Mahama, has donated 20 computers and their accessories to the School of Communications Studies, University of Ghana, to enhance teaching and learning.

The computers, valued at about 20,000 Ghana cedis, are to strengthen the capacity of the School in the areas of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Research.

The donation is in fulfillment of a pledge made by the Vice President when he visited the School during its Homecoming Week celebration, last year.

Mr Kofi Attor, Administrator and Chief Executive Officer of GIFEC, who presented the computers to the School on Thursday, said Government has a responsibility to improve ICT and bridge the digital divide between different sectors within the country on one hand, and the country and the international community on the other.

He said the Government established the GIFEC to enable telecom companies to contribute one per cent of their net income to the Fund to improve ICT nationwide.

Organisations that have benefited from the Fund include the Ghana Prisons Service, 39 teacher training colleges, 38 technical training schools and some youth training centres who received computers, scanners and projectors, with the aim of improving the knowledge of trainees in ICT, to effectively impart on their pupils.

He said within the next four years, the Military, post offices and the libraries would be stuffed with computers to enhance their operations.

Mr Attor, an alumnus of the School of Communication Studies, expressed the hope that both lecturers and students of the educational institution would use the computers to improve their research work.

Mr Joseph Maafo Budu, Registrar of the University of Ghana, who received the computers, said the university was concerned that about 90 per cent of internet content and its usage came from the developed world and that there was the need to bridge that gap.

He commended the Vice President for the kind gesture, and said the computers would help in research activities of the School and improve the country’s contribution to the content of internet information.

Dr Margaret I. Amoakohene, Acting Director of the School of Communication Studies, said the donation would augment the number of computers in the School to meet its objective of achieving one student - one computer.

She commended Vice President John Mahama, an alumnus of the School, for fulfilling his promise, and asked the students to make good use of the computers as well as help to maintain them. **