Three Community Information centres inaugurated

Tumu (U/W), May 31, GNA - Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of Communications on Monday inaugurated three Community Information Centres (CICs) at Wa, Lawra and Tumu, all in the Upper West Region. They were built at a total cost of 1.14 billion cedis. Each of the centres was constructed at a cost of 200 million cedis while the equipment cost 180 million cedis. They formed part of a network of CICs dotted around the country to provide for the basic communication needs of the people.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said the construction of such CICs were not meant to stifle the development of private communication and internet centres but to complement their efforts and make it affordable to the deprived, particularly students in the rural areas of the country.

He said television sets, radio, photocopying machines, computer services and telephone services would be provided at the centres to make it accessible to the public to become abreast with modern trends in technology.

The Minister said libraries would also be built at the CICs so that the public could access information in books, magazines and newspapers on the internet instead of carrying big books as used to be the case in the recent past.

Mr Ambrose Dery, Upper West Regional Minister, said he was not happy that five months after the general election in the country, people were still taking entrenched political positions that were inimical to development.

"The elections have passed those, who won are doing their duties and those who lost are back on the drawing board and why should we continue fighting?"

He said the construction of CICs was part of the government's policy to develop the human resource base of the country.

At Wa, Mr Godfrey Bayong Tangu, Acting Wa Municipal Chief Executive, said the provision of technology to the people would speed up the socio-economic development of the country.

He appealed to the students at all level of education to patronise the centre, which would help them to build up their communication skills.

The three centres are the first to be inaugurated throughout the country.