Capacity building workshop for District Information Officers opens

Accra, April 21, GNA - A two-week capacity building workshop in computer literacy for District Information Officers (DIOs) of the Information Services Department opened in Accra on Monday with a call on participants to show humility, commitment and determination to learn as much as they could to improve their work in the districts.

Mrs. Oboshie Sai-Cofie, Minister of Information and National Orientation (MINO), said Information Communication Technology (ICT) had come to enhance the way of life and standard of living, hence the need for the ministry to equip its staff to meet the challenges. She said it was the desire of MINO to equip all DIOs with requisite knowledge and skills in the application of ICT to enable them to discharge their duties efficiently and effectively.

"Modern Information Officers cannot stand to stare as the tools for their profession undergo rapid changes at a speed that we cannot determine now," he said.

In all, 20 participants, mostly newly recruited DIOs and District Information Officers whose districts have Community Information Centre (CIC) facilities were selected from two districts in each region to attend the workshop.

The workshop, the third in a series, is collaboration between the MINO and Ministry of Communications, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ghana Investment Fund for Communication and the Ghana Multimedia Incubation Centre.

Mrs Sai-Cofie said: "The Ministry is conscious of the fact that if nothing is done now to update and upgrade its staff, we shall wake up one morning only to realize that we are 'out of coverage areas' of our own profession."

She therefore urged them to take advantage of the opportunity and absorb as much as they could during the period. Besides the DIOs normal duties of disseminating information of explaining government policies and programmes to the public as well as bringing feedback from the people to government, they would be expected after the training to be writing news stories and features to be published on the Government website www.ghana.gov.gh.

In a speech read for him, Mr. Albert Ampong, Chief Director of Information Services Department, said the officers would support the CICs by developing content and assisting the managers of the centres for their effective and efficient information management. He urged them to be creative, innovative and take initiative to improve on their performance.

Mr Ofosu Adarkwah, a representative from the Ministry of Communications, stressed the need for the officers to move beyond their ordinary work and delve into more challenging areas to meet the tasks ahead.

He said at the moment most MDAs were creating their own websites and very soon that would be their tool of communication.