Business News of Friday, 23 December 2011

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Kludjeson bounces back with Akasanoma PCTV and KPad

Kludjeson International Limited (KIL), the company that started Celtel, which became Kasapa Telecom (now Expresso) has introduced two innovative products unto the technology market through one of its subsidiaries called Alltel Limited.

The products are the AKASANOMA PCTV, which is an all-in-one computer and television set and comes in 22, 26, 32, 42, 55 and 65 inches with memories of up to one terabyte for the home, schools and corporate organisations.

Whiles the KPAD, which are actually specially-made android-based IPADs to suite both local conditions and international standards, also come in seven, nine and 10 inches with memories of up to eight gigabytes.

Chairman and Chief Executive of Alltel, Mr. Kofi Kludjeson told Adom News the brand name KPAD, which stood for Kludjeson-PAD was chosen by the foreign designers over the original name he chose for the tablets, which was A-PAD (African PAD), adding that the name Akasanoma was also chosen to give the PCTV a Ghanaian brand name with an international appeal.

He said the research and development (R&D) that went into the two devices were completely done by young Ghanaians at Alltel, but the applications and design of the devices were done with the support of ZTE of China and Hughes Corporation of USA.

Mr. Kludjeson, who was once associated with Hewlett Packard in Ghana told Adom News the AKASANOMA PCTV sets also have inbuilt CPU’s and internet connectivity powered by satellite, and also comes with free a MultiTV digibox to give users access to many TV channels on purchase.

He said the PCTV and KPADS would be tools through which Alltel would create several Wi-Fi hot spots in homes, offices, schools and various locations across the country to make internet connectivity easy for Ghanaians no matter where they are in the country.

Mr. Kludjeson said the main focus would be the staff of crucial sectors like education, health, security, media and even churches, to ensure that all these groups have easy access to information as well as tools to transmit information with convenience anywhere in Ghana.

“Over the past three months we have supplied Akasanoma and KPADS to the military as an institution and to some individual staff, the SDA church, and some few institutions – we also have dates to do presentation to the Ministry of Education with the view to supplying teachers and we have also spoken with groups in the health sector to supply doctors and nurses with KPADS,” he said.

He said the company is in talks with banks to support the supply of the devices on credit to salaried workers so the banks could take the money in instalment on behalf of Alltel over a period of between 12 months and 36 months, depending on what is suitable for the customer.

“For the military the applications they want require they pay GHC70 a month for three years while others are looking to pay between GHC75 and GHC85 per months for three years because of the kind of applications they want on the KPADS.

“Our products are such that you can upgrade them to suit your needs and after every three years you can trade it in for a new one like it is done in other countries,” he said.

Mr. Kludjeson said the company has also established a training centre at Ghana House in Accra to provide e-learning training for more Ghanaian workers to use the internet and android applications to facilitate their work.

He said, beginning from next year, the company is looking into reaching 10 English-speaking African countries and also looking at the bigger international market later next year.

Mr. Kludjeson said currently the company is 100% owned by KIL but it would float shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange later next year to allow Ghanaians to own shares in a Ghanaian company that is taking technology to the highest level.