Senior Secondary School Students from the Northern, Upper East and West regions have demonstrated their preparedness to fully participate in the knowledge economy as developers of ICT products and services. The students showcased their skills during a computer programming competition organized by the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT in collaboration with the Finatrade Foundation for eighty (80) students selected from twenty (20) Senior Secondary Schools. The event was hosted in Tamale on 7th July 2007. During the competition, contestants were required to demonstrate basic programming skills such as writing a program that converts the new Ghana Cedis(GH¢) to cedis(¢) and vice versa. The judges were extremely impressed with the quality of code written by the contestants.

The Director General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT was overwhelmed with the enthusiasm and dedication of the students and their tutors to the competition. “ i2CAP remains an inspiration to me and I am confident that give it a few years we will find a number of IT success stories from among the ranks of the participants” She said.

Tamale Islamic Secondary School emerged as the winner for schools in the Northern region. Notre Dame Senior Secondary School won the Upper East regional event. Wa Islamic Secondary emerged as the winner for Schools in the Upper West region.

Mr. John K. Hobenu, Northern Regional Director of Education said although other technological revolutions such as the Industrial Revolution had by-pass Ghana, it will be unpardonable for the nation to allow itself to be eluded again with this Information Revolution. “Ghana can march-up or even up-stage some of the industrial nations if ICT development is approached with all the seriousness it deserve”. He added.

The i2CAP competition has been organized in all the ten regions of Ghana, two hundred and sixty seven senior secondary schools have participated in the competition. A national competition is scheduled for September 2007. END Ebenezer Kye-Mensah (i2CAP Coordinator) Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT