GHANA IS READY Ghana is worth considering when it comes to information technology enabled services. A member of the Commonwealth, our human resource base has a long standing relationship with British standards and British educational institutions namely the Universities of London, Cambridge, Oxford, The City University, Sunderland Universities of Hudderfield. A similar relationship pertains to career and professional development. Several Ghanaian technicians are certified by the Institute of Management Information Systems (IMIS, UK) and the National Computing Centre (NCC, UK). There are also existing professional affiliations with the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Chartered Institute of Marketing, Institute of Management Information Systems, and Chartered Institute of Management.

Our current situation enables Ghanaian companies with the capability to deliver the following services:

• Data transcription services (medical, legal)
• Data entry
• Data presentation services
• Content management
• Customer services (Contact/call centre)
• Telemarketing, Client Survey, help desk services
• Credit reporting services
• Document management and scanning for corporate archives services
• Human resource services (e.g. time sheet management, expense- claims)
• Internet based Electronic money transfer services

These services are supported by a bilingual pool of human resources that have been trained by skills development institutions like NIIT, APTECH, CISCO and Certified Microsoft and Oracle Certified institutions. There is a pool of IT management graduates that have been trained on methods, project management as well as general administration. There is also an influx of bilingual graduates from francophone countries as a result of the “Busy Internet Effect” – Which is basically the trend of companies, human resources and training institutions locating within the square mile of Busy Internet. (Africa’s largest cybercafé).

The capability and the focus on information technology enabled services has been facilitated by the availability of the following resources:

• Incubator services being funded by the World Bank and facilitated by Infrastructure suppliers like Busy Internet, Ghana House,(Multimedia Centre) and Silver Star Tower.

• E1, ISDN, Broadband services supplied by Ghana Telecom

• Presence of Internet Gateway and terrestrial (Fibre (SAT3), satellite based carriers like IP Planet, Gilat, Immarsat, PCCW

• The availability of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), which requires licence from the National Communications Authority and a Service Level Agreement with either the First Network Operator (Ghana Telecom) or the Second Network Operator (WESTEL).

• Country wide infrastructure using GSM 900 and GPRS (220kbps per device)

• 24/7 availability of utilities within ICT facilities provided by companies like Busy Internet, Ghana House, Silver Star Towers each having the seating capacity ranging from 250 to 500 people.

• Provision of SAN and NAS services by Network Appliance (Net App) through IP Planet

• Training centres NIIT, Cisco Academy, APTECH and Microsoft/Oracle certified training institutions

• Resource pool of computer literate, bilingual professionals
• Influx of a pool of bilingual professionals from West Africa francophone countries

A British Success Story in ITES/ITS services has been the Investment in Busy Internet, which remains Africa’s largest internet café with patronage on average of 50,000 people a month. The Investment was by a consortium that included Fidelity Group, a British Investment House.

Fidelity Capital Partners and its consortium are not the only investors in ITES/ITS. Other noteworthy entrants in to Ghana include:

• AQ Solutions, which provides software engineering solutions to companies like General Electric
• ACS BPS, a fortune 500 company that provides outsourcing services and is now the largest employer in Ghana
• Rising Data Solutions, that provides contact/call centre services

Efforts to grow the Information Technology enabled Services sector has been consolidated by the following efforts by private sector led initiatives and Foreign Direct Investment Agency initiatives which include the following:

• Development of ITES/ITS/ICT parks and incubation centres (Tema and Kumasi Ghana Free Zones Board/MIGA)

• Formation and operation of the Ghana ITES Society (Ghana Free Zones Board/ITES companies/Pro Invest/MIGA)

• Development of Infrastructure facilities( Busy Internet/Government of Ghana/Silver Star Tower)

• Re-engineering and formulation of Data Protection Act, Information Security Act, E – legislation ( World Bank/Government of Ghana/ private sector)

• Adoption of SFIA, ISO, CMM, E-SCM frameworks by the Ghana ITES society

As result of the above efforts and the impact being made by the following agencies; i.e.

• Pro-Invest(Investment arm of European Union and ACP countries)
• MIGA( Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency-World Bank)
• Fidelity Capital Partners
• Ghana Free Zones Board(FDI Promoter of Ghana)
• Ghana Investment Promotion Centre(FDI promotion Agency)
• WABA (West Africa Business Association, UK)
• Government of Ghana

We believe Ghana is ready for foreign direct investment in Information Technology enabled Services.