Koforidua, April 14, GNA - A two-week training of the first Community Information Centre (CIC) Co-ordinators drawn from 22 pilot districts throughout the country had ended at the Koforidua Polytechnic ended on Thursday.

The CIC was a policy of the Ministry of Communications in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to facilitate the deployment and exploitation of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the society and economy of the country.

In his closing address, Dr. Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, a Deputy Minister of Communication, pointed out that the government acknowledged that the country's entry into the information age required rapid extension of access to ICTs to benefit all sections of the community in poverty reduction and job creation.

To attain the objective, he said the CICs were found to be a direct policy to bridge the digital divide, noting that the international digital divide was also widening the gap between rural and urban centers in the country as in other third world countries.

Dr Ntim told the Co-ordinators that as pioneers in their respective districts, their effective training of the people would go a long way to help eradicate poverty and move the country from its weak industrial and subsistence agriculture-based economy towards a middle income status. According to him, the ability to use ICT was becoming important in almost all workplaces, noting that jobs in the rapidly growing information technology sector paid almost 80 per cent more than the average private sector wage.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Yaw Barimah, in a speech read on his behalf, asked the Co-ordinators to tailor their services towards the peculiar needs of their clients in the communities to ensure that the Centres were well-patronised.

He said it was imperative that the management of the CICs conduct periodic research to identify the needs of the community and strive hard to repackage its services to meet them to ensure sustainability. Mr Barimah asked them to ensure that the Centres were stocked with good quality equipment and infrastructure so that they could continue to offer uninterrupted services to the community.

He asked them to organize regular refresher courses for the staff to sharpen their skills and service delivery.

Mr Fred Appiah of the UNDP, noted that ICT was increasingly becoming a powerful tool for participation in the global market, promoting political accountability, improving the delivery of basic services and enhancing local development opportunities. He said the CIC project, which is to cover 230 communities nationwide, would be supported by 10 telecentres with one in each of the 10 regions, to ensure diverse access to the social and economic opportunities by ICT solutions.

Mr Appiah said the UNDP, Ghana and Microsoft company of the US were offering their support to the project in terms of infrastructure and training, saying the UNDP was interested in helping to bring ICT to the doorsteps of Ghanaians to facilitating the country's participation in global business.

The New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, Nana Kwasi Adjei Boateng, commended the government for initiating the project, noting that it would assist in the promotion of the use of ICT in rural and deprived communities to enhance the total development of the country.