e-Ghana Creates 3,000 Jobs By June

By Samuel Boadi
MORE THAN 6 business outsourcing organisations have expressed their readiness to relocate to Ghana by the end of this month.
This is expected to result in the creation of some 3,000 jobs through business process outsourcing (BPO) in the ICT sector by the middle of this year, officials of Ghana’s IT Enabled Services (ITES) have noted.
Umar Alhassan, Director of ITES, who stated this at a media sensitisation workshop Thursday in Accra, said the companies’ appetite for investing in Ghana was whetted by Ghana’s impressive showing at this year’s Global Outsourcing Summit in Orlando, USA, which was organised by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP).
Mentioning some of the investors as Aegis, APAC, Teletech, Procter & Gamble and also ACE – many of whom are American companies, he said their services will include customer services, call centre operations, software development, insurance and data entry among others.
The eGhana project, launched in April 2006, aims at leveraging ICT and public-private ownerships to among other things contribute to improved efficiency and transparency of government functions through e-government applications.
Veronica Boateng, Director of Application Systems Department of GICTeD, in a presentation, said based on the positive progression of the e-Ghana project, the Ghana Information and Communication Technology Directorate (GICTeD) has completed processing tender documents for the procurement of facilities for the establishment of a government information portal for all government agencies.
The tender documents, she confirmed, have been submitted to the World Bank for approval to cover the procurement of equipment and software for the project and this formed part of e-Ghana’s objective of enhancing the use of the internet to enhance information delivery among the various government agencies.
She further mentioned that initially some four e-services would be piloted. These include a content management system for managing hosted content on the portal; a payment gateway to allow portal applications to receive payment from patrons; e-forms application as well as a document management system.
Furthermore, Mrs Boateng said the project would greatly support an effective, efficient and increased domestic revenue mobilisation to grow the economy and stimulate development. the automation of Ghana’s revenue agencies under the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
From November 2006 spanning a period of five years, the project has been funded with a $40 million International Development Assistance (IDA) credit and a $2 million support from the Ghana Government, Nelson O. Osae, Coordinator of e-Ghana has revealed.
Beneficiaries cover government machinery, the business sector through increased investment opportunities and reduced transactions costs as well as the general public through better government services, increased technical capacity and opportunities for employment.