Ghana kicks off ICT park construction

Enclave in the Greater Accra Region.
The 20-hectare technology park is the first of its kind in the entire West Africa region in a joint funding from both the Ghana government and the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), who injected a whopping            US$15 million for the project.
The ICT project is being constructed by a Ghanaian-owned construction firm, Berock Ventures Ltd (BVL), and is widely believed will serve as hub for ICT in the entire country.
Berock Ventures Ltd has started construction work of the first phase of 7,25 hectares while the remainder is expected to be complete by 2015.
The ICT centre comprises the installation of external lighting, roadworks, associated footpaths and cycle tracks, electrical and telecommunication services and associated ducting.
There will also be various electrical sub-stations and equipment plinths, underground water tanks, and an underground fire tank and street lighting.
Iddrissu said other technology parks across the globe have been recognised as an important mechanism for innovation and stimulating technology transfer, the formation and growth of high-tech entrepreneurial startups saying this will                 stimulate regional economic development.
He cited Smart Village in Egypt, Innovation Hub in South Africa, Silicon Valley in America, and the Cambridge Science Park in England as shining examples of technology parks that have managed to persuade large companies to invest in them by offering access to research centres, high-quality laboratory facilities and available infrastructure.
“These parks also provided companies with ready access to innovative projects which yielded enormous benefits,” said Iddrissu.
The premier technology park will stimulate the startup and growth of technology-intensive, knowledge-based businesses in the country as well as provide infrastructure and business support services designed to assist export-oriented small and medium ICT/ITES business to optimise their potential, he indicated.
Iddrissu disclosed that his ministry would develop the park by public/private partnership or solely the through private sector.
He said work on the second park to be based in Cape Coast — where the University of Cape Coast has provided land — will begin by September; for which US$5 million has so far been secured.
The collaboration with the university, he hopes, will promote innovation and skills development in the academia. —  CAJ News.