The Honourable Minister of Communications, Dr. Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, formally commissioned two Community Information Centres (CIC) in the towns of Yendi and Bimbilla, during a two-day working visit to the Northern Region.

In his speech delivered during the ceremony at Bimbilla, the Minister stressed that if the large numbers of residents in the rural areas were left out of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) advances in the country, we would leave a large pool of potential wealth untapped. There was therefore a need for the people of Bimbilla to fully utilise the CIC in order help the region to catch up to the rest of the world in terms of knowledge and development through ICT.

At Yendi, the Honourable Minister inaugurated a Steering Committee for the CIC, responsible for general guidance and direction of the Centre and composed of representatives of the traditional rulers and MDAs in the Yendi district. He stressed that the management of the CICs should not turn them into “cyber-cafe or internet café type facility” but ought to remain focused on their core mission of providing access to ICTs, creating awareness for ITC and providing support for the local business community.

Dr. Aggrey Ntim followed up the commissioning ceremonies at Yendi and Bimbilla with a visit to Ghana Telecom’s Fibre Optic Termination Point in Tamale. After being shown round the facility, Minister expressed satisfaction with the progress of the Fibre Optic Project from a technical standpoint. However, he was dissatisfied with the amount of interest shown in the project by companies and organisations in both the private and public sector. One example he cited was that the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation could take advantage of the Fibre Optic network in order to improve its broadcasting services to the Northern sector. It was his hope that the Fibre Optic network would soon be taken advantage of in order to open up all regions of Ghana to rapid and affordable telecommunications access.