Identify Revenue Collection Opportunities

Accra picked as one of 32 cities worldwide to receive Smarter Cities Challenge Grant

ACCRA, GHANA and ARMONK, N.Y., March 15, 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the selection of Accra, Ghana as one of 32 cities worldwide who shall receive IBM Smarter Cities Challenge (#smartercities) grants during 2012.

Launched in 2011, the Smarter Cities Challenge is a three-year, 100-city US $50 million program, IBM's single-largest philanthropic initiative, funds in-person engagements staffed by teams of top IBM experts, who study and then make detailed recommendations addressing locally important urban issues.

The IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant will help Accra identify, prioritize and benchmark the key economic, societal and environmental challenges facing the city.

“The selection of Accra will help the city to improve its revenue collection capacity, allowing it to effectively position itself as a growing regional urban hub in Africa. It is our hope that Accra’s investor potential will be significantly boosted by this grant,” said Joe Mensah, Country General Manager, IBM Ghana.

The Smarter Cities Challenge grant comprises of the use of IBM technology alongside a deployment of high-level team of executives who will be assigned to work on capacity building with urban authorities during their stay in Accra.

Specifically, the grant will enable Accra to streamline its revenue collection channels, leveraging IBM’s expertise in developing smarter systems for emerging cities.

The proposed outreach will include the deployment of a team of Smarter Challenge experts who are expected to be in Accra later this year. In addition, the grant covers complimentary use of existing technologies for the duration of the engagement.

At the end of their tour, the team will officially present their findings and recommendations to senior public officials, including actionable recommendations.

Over the last ten years, Accra has worked to invest in systems that will allow it to enjoy sustainable growth. The city was recently declared a Millennium City by the Earth Institute of Columbia University, New York.

The Millennium Cities initiative is a project aimed at helping selected cities in sub-Saharan Africa to design effective and viable strategies towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Building Smarter Cities The need to use new approaches to address civic challenges has never been greater. In 2008, according to the United Nations, more than half the world's population began living in cities for the first time. These population centers are more economically powerful, politically influential, and technologically advanced than at any time in history. But they also struggle with budgetary and operational challenges.

IBM's Smarter Cities Challenge is an outgrowth of IBM's Corporate Service Corps grants program, in which IBM deploys teams of top employees to areas in the developing world to work on projects that intersect business, technology and society. Since the launch of Corporate Service Corps in 2008, nearly 1,400 IBM employees based in 50 countries have been dispatched on more than 140 team assignments in 24 countries.

The Smarter Cities Challenge is sponsored by IBM's Corporate Citizenship program and IBM’s International Foundation. IBM has been a leader in corporate social responsibility and citizenship for 100 years.

To learn more about IBM's corporate citizenship initiatives, visit: http://www.citizenibm.com and http://www.youtube.com/user/citizenIBM. Follow us on Twitter @citizenIBM

To find out more about IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grants, please visit http://smartercitieschallenge.org/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sJ_3H0K3zo

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