Open source – resource centre for West Africa

STORY BY: PATRICK ASFORD BOADU.

Government says it will deliver better value for money in the
e-governance programme. These include critical areas of the economy such as
education, health and agriculture. Deputy Minister for communication, Gideon
Quarcoo made this known at the launch of ‘’Open Source” resource centre for the
Economic West African States (ECOWAS) at the Ghana – India Kofi Annan centre of
Excellence in ICT. He noted that the establishment of “Open Source” Resource
Centre will facilitate economic growth and open Job opportunities for member
states to development the sub region. He said “The development of through Open
Source software solutions globally are enormous, the growth in open source in
business, civil society and both private and public sectors internationally are
a welcome news to the sub Saharan African region. The deputy minister of
communication, Gideon Quarcoo said the Open Source Resource Centre will serve
as the mainstream system to formulate policy for economic growth among member
states. He said “Africans need to work together to advance our ownership of
technology. It is for this reason that we are extremely pleased that Ghana –
India Kofi Annan Centre of excellence in ICT hosted launch of the initiative
and is receiving that maximum support of institutions throughout ECOWAS. The
deputy minister of communication in a statement said “The capacity – building
dimension of Open Source Technologies can make a real difference in the speed
with which we can achieve our technology goals through innovation. We need to
reduce dependency on technologies that have not been developed for needs and
working environment. He noted that as government plan for expenditure on ICT in
the context of tighter budgetary restrictions it is important that member
states have a better understanding of the possibilities that Open Source offer
to deliver better value for money in e – governance including critical areas
such education, health and agriculture. “This is no doubt one of the reasons
that the initiative is supported by the ECOWAS Commission. Gideon Quarcoo expressed
his expectation for the initiative and urged member states to raise public
awareness of the use of Open Source, build capacity both at the individual and
institutional level, to promote localization, research and development on Open
Source across the countries, to systematically examine issues of vendor lock-
in interoperability and Total Cost of Ownership and finally document experience
in software implementation for proprietary and open source developments as well
as those instance where the two approaches are blended. The deputy minister for
communication also challenged member states to ensure that the work of the open
source resource centre – West Africa promotes collaboration between software
companies internationally, so that software companies owned by Africans also
grow and create jobs for the talented African youth. In an exclusive interview
with Patrick Asford Boadu the Director for community computer centre at the
office of the vice president for Economic Community West African states,
ECOWAS, Commission, Dr. Shola Afolabi, stressed that the initiative will create
job opportunities for youth in the member states. Dr. Shola Afolabi noted that
the open source initiative is highly affordable, transparent and sustainable.



e-mail address : asfordboadu@yahoo.com