Ghana tipped to dominate ICT sector in West Africa Sub Region

The Country Consultant for Jobberman Ghana, an internet recruitment and advertising firm  Mr.Jide Otoki has expressed optimism on Ghana’s dominance as a key technological hub within the West African Sub –region. According to him with the emergence of Incubators, Start-ups and Tech-Incline Entrepreneurs who believes in the technological revolution within the business circles coupled with a thriving environment for ICT companies. Ghana definitely has what it takes to hold reign over the ICT market in the sub-region. Mr Otoki shared his thoughts with BiztechAfrica's Ghana Correspondent Nana Appiah Acquaye on Jobberman’s prospects in Ghana with relations to the developments of news technological approaches in the area of advertising and job recruitment.

·       
       What role does Jobberman play in the field of advertising and job recruitment services?

From inception, Jobberman set out to be the differentiator by putting the best into quality and processes that translates into connecting employers and jobseekers while creating the most unique experience. Jobberman’s position in the field of advertising and recruitment services is a unique one as we are able to satisfy employers and at the same help reduce the escalating unemployment rate in the West African sub region. Our offering is quite unique because all of the frontline recruitment services like jobs advertising, applications sorting and career service, we offer put us in a position to be a service supplier to HR and recruiting firms.

·          
  Who are behind the establishment of Jobberman in Ghana?

In 2009, Jobberman was birthed on the intellectual soils of the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife by the 2012 Future Awards nominee trio of Ayodeji Adewunmi, Olalekan Olude and Opeyemi Awoyemi. They have since grown Jobberman to be the one stop destinations for Jobs and Jobseekers in West Africa. There are many accolades from reputable establishments like Forbes, TNW, and Mckinsey attesting to the fact that we are doing something right. We have offices in all the major cities in Nigeria and the Accra office is the flagship of the Ghana operations. The Ghana operation is being headed by my humble self Jide Otoki as the Country Consultant.

·         Why did Jobberman choose Ghana as it second point of doing business?

Most importantly, Jobberman is determined to empower as many people as possible. Meanwhile, Ghana is fast becoming the top choice destination for investment in Africa because of the enabling environment created for business to thrive there. Since many businesses are moving in to Ghana, invariably jobs will be created and Jobberman is in Ghana to make this opportunities and experiences available to all.  Considering all of these, coming to Ghana became inevitable.

·         How does Jobberman.com.gh intend promoting the use of ICT in Ghana? 

A great man once said ‘knowledge shared is never lost’. Chiefly, the transfer of knowledge and adoption of technology are the key ways Jobberman.com.gh will be contributing its bit to the forming of the ICT landscape in Ghana. Jobberman.co.gh as an internet company has most contact with its audience on the internet so; all of the applications on Jobberman.com.gh are done online. Also, all of the technologies we use in house to run our operations in Ghana will be transferred to our local staff. Having realized that the power of technology lies in its applications and uses, we are also looking into mentoring and acquisition of local talent.

·         What role does the use of ICT plays in the core activities of Jobberman?

Contemporarily, no serious minded organization should be without the numerous solutions of ICT in its operations. Stating the obvious, Jobberman.com.gh is as an internet company runs its operations from the internet.  The activities of Jobberman.com.gh are conducted with servers, computers, software, internet, online social media and each one has varying degrees of influence on our services. The most important technology of the 21^st century – internet has broken the barriers created by time and space making it possible for all our users across Ghana to make applications from the comfort of their homes or offices using their mobile phones or computers and not having to go to the post office to mail their applications. Interestingly, having processed millions of applications in the past three years, we have come appreciate the power of technology. 

·         What special ICT tools or innovations is Jobberman going to deploy onto the Ghanaian advertising and career development or opportunity market?

In terms of business management, our approaches and solutions are totally tech savvy. From the point where we receive the job ads, to the point where the clients is fully satisfied, Jobberman.com.gh uses the latest ICT products and services. Definitely, these services will be transferred to the business partners, associates and staff. For instance, we have one of the most robust CRM tools around and managing the sales and customers is a symmetric process.

·         Does the Business Climate in Ghana’s support the use of ICT, and how effective are you going to harness that to your advantage?

It is quite commendable to say that, the infrastructural support for ICT in Ghana is well defined and reliable. Unlike most places in Africa that are still batting with basic support systems like power and reliable data services, Ghana has a vibrant industry of service providers in the ICT industry that will continue to funnel their service to business owners willing to pay the right price. Jobberman.com.gh will be outsourcing some of its needs to qualified service providers. All of these just mean that we have one less to worry about and we can focus on the core of business.

·         How do you see the Ghanaian ICT sector and that of Jobberman in the next 5 years to come?

The years ahead are surely going to be eventful and reward for both Ghana and Jobberman.com.gh. At the prevailing growth rate, the ICT sector in Ghana will have doubled its current size. Jobberman.com.gh position as the Largest Jobs portal in West Africa will be cemented in Ghana and 2 million professionals will have gotten jobs through Jobberman.com.gh.

·         In your personal opinion, does Ghana has what it takes to dominate the technological sector in the West Africa sub region and what would that mean for Jobberman?

The disadvantage for Africa in the global ICT sphere is that we consume a lot of finished products. Development comes at a price and Ghana at the moment is paying the price by investing heavily in the education and adoption of different technologies for the Americans, Chinese and Europeans. Incubators, Start-ups and Entrepreneurs are finding their way to Ghana because of the thriving environment that exists in Ghana for ICT companies. Ghana definitely has what it takes to hold reign over the ICT market in the sub-region. Jobberman.com.gh is will always be there to provide the connection for employers and jobseekers.

MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY SUCCESS IN GHANA-INTERVIEW WTH MR.BOB PALITZ

Mr. Bob Palitz is a consultant for the National Communications Authority (NCA) on the implementation of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in Ghana which got under way in July 2011,last year. The month of July 2012 this year was used to access the success and achievements of this exercise in Ghana. The National regulator in the country, National Communication Authority (NCA) together with other stakeholders in the telecom industry marked the one year anniversary of MNP in Ghana with the issuance of a report that recount the smooth implementation of the exercise since its inception last year till date. Although the NCA described the exercise as a success, it also pointed out certain challenges that are still bedeviling the successful running of the MNP across country. For an in-depth understanding of how successful the MNP was carried out, BiztechAfrica's Ghana correspodent Nana Appiah Acquaye granted an exclusive interview to Mr. Bob Palitz….

* Overall, would you describe the MNP implementation as successful?

Yes, I believe it was very successful. We have enabled Ghanaian mobile customers to take advantage of the competitive environment, and nearly 400,000 have already done so.

* Is the number of people porting to new operators in line with global averages?

We believe it is, although there are few examples of developing countries which have implemented MNP in an efficient and consumer-friendly manner. In one year, we had successful ports equivalent to 1.6% of the total active account base in Ghana. But there are far fewer ACTUAL customers in Ghana, due to so many people having 2 or 3 SIMs. This would make the porting number higher than 1.6% compared to the actual number of individuals with mobile phones, but there is no way to measure how much higher since we don’t know how many people have more than one SIM.

India has recently reported almost 5% of mobile base porting, but a lot of those ports were due to customers moving from networks which were shut down due to a court decision. It’s a different situation entirely.

We do expect porting to grow with market size and public awareness.

* The report mentions miscommunication and even deception causing problems. How many people have been affected by this?

The reports reaching us indicate it is far less than 1% of successful ports. But again, we take any deceptive practice very seriously.

What steps are being taken to prevent this?

NCA doesn’t have any direct recourse with the field agents themselves, only against the operators on whose behalf they are acting. Each operator has confirmed to us that they apply a financial penalty to agents who have submitted fraudulent porting requests, but none have told us that they remove such agents from their systems. Obviously this has been insufficient to address the problem. We care considering various steps, including redesign of the porting request form to highlight a warning, and more detailed investigations of each incident, possibly leading to sanctions.

By when will a decision be taken about sanctions against operators who allow it to happen?

We believe a multi-faceted approach is needed. With regard to sanctions, the Mobile Number Portability Regulations 2011 already give NCA authority to assess administrative penalties of up to GHS20,000 per incident. However, we are in the process of composing a detailed list of sanctions for each type of offense, and the factors that lead to this situation will be included. That list will have to be gazetted before it can take effect. We cannot predict when sanctions would kick in with regard to fraudulent porting, but it is clearly in the cards, if other methods fail.

TIGO GHANA MARKS ONE-WEEK ANNIVERSARY OF PRESIDENT’S DEMISE

Tigo Ghana has joined the rest of the Ghanaian populace to mark the one week anniversary of the demise of their late president Prof. John Evans Atta Mills. The General Manger of Tigo Ghana Mr. Adil El Youssefi together with the entire Tigo staff observes a minute silence to commemorate the occasion. In a statement issued in Accra and signed by the head of marketing Mr. Tenu Awoonor, it noted that the many heartfelt tributes and messages of condolence that continue to pour in from across the world and on multiple networks including Tigo following the passing of H.E. Professor John Evans Atta Mills, attest to the fact that his mark and influence went way beyond the limited shores of Ghana.

“This fact was also amply manifested here at Tigo where our colleagues from across the operations as far as Latin America and in Africa have shared their commiserations with us.

 Ghana and indeed Africa has lost a great leader whose humility and caring nature was as remarkable as it was legendary” he added.

According to the statement General Manager of Tigo Ghana, Mr. Adil El Youssefi disclosed in the book of condolence opened at the State House, Accra that is it abundantly clear that a great tree, a guiding light and a beacon has fallen and that Tigo joins the people of Ghana to mourn the passing of H.E. Professor John Evans Atta Mills. “We at Tigo mourn the loss of a great leader” he said.

The statement further intimated that while the nation unite in it’s  colossal loss and grief, it should be encouraged and empowered by the values of humility, selflessness and dedication to duty the late president stood for, to continue building a great and prosperous nation.

Nana Appiah Acquaye

I m on here folks!!!!!!!

Audio Recording on Wednesday afternoon

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA WAS USE TO ANNOUNCE THE DEATH OF GHANA’S LATE PRESIDENT PROF. J.E.A. MILLS

The use of social media in Ghana shot to its highest peak on Tuesday following the reported death of the President of Ghana H.E Prof John Evan Atta Mills later in the day. Many Ghanaians both home and abroad who could not come to terms with the news of the President demise relied a great deal on their facebooks, twitters and blogs to authenticate the news. As news media organizations across the country run their various major bulletin’s confirming the unfortunate incident which took place at the country’s 37^th military hospital, thousands of face book and twitter messages of condolences were also slipping in for them to read. Popular informative radio stations in Ghana including Joy 99.7Fm, Vibe 91.9 Fm, Citi 93.7Fm and Peace 104.3 Fm recorded about hundreds of facebook likes to their various stories they posted on their respective website whiles many twits on their page about the death of the president. BiztechAfrica can confirmed that at the Kaneshie Market Complex where brisk business activities take place, many Ghanaians especially the market women were left devastated, other shocked by the news , whiles other were seen weeping with their mobile phones  ear device  stuck in their ears either receiving a call or monitoring one of the radio stations.    

The Ghanaian blogger was not also left out in the quest for accurate information by the public. Most of their blogs that carried the story of the president’s death saw a rise in the number of comments left by readers on their blog. According to one blogger, he was surprise at the massive rise in reader comments on his blog. Today will go down in history as a day when the Ghanaian blogger could not end reading comments posted on his blog from readers both home and abroad sending condolence message to the family and love ones of the late president Prof. J.E.A. Mills” he said.

Many internet cafés in suburbs like Kaneshie, Odorkor, Darkuman and Mataheko all within the capital, Accra that BiztechAfrica visited witnessed  high attendance at the cafés with customers glued either in pairs or groups to their computers surfing the internet to read more about the sadden death of one of Ghana’s most respected and revered president.

There were also huge traffic on mobile phone network connectivity in the country as fellow citizens make phone calls  and send text messages to friends, families and love ones to announce or confirm the death of their beloved president. Even before an official confirmation of the president of the president death could reach them, some high ranking officials within the corridors government confirmed to BiztechAfrica that they have heard about the sad news through a mobile phone call or a text message or read about it on their facebook page.

At 16:00 GMT major mobile network providers including MTN, Vodafone and Tigo have had their entire network jammed with massive traffic making it difficult even to make or receive calls without interruption. The situation stabilized at about 20:48GMT when the Vice President H.E.  John Dramani Mahama was officially sworn in as the President of the Republic of Ghana by Parliament.

Indeed just as the 24^th of July 2012 would go down in history, as a solemn day where Ghanaian from all walks of live lost a sitting president to the cold icy hands of death, so it would also be remembered as the day when the tentacles of social media had a better grips on Ghanaians as a people not to stage an up rising to overthrow a dictative and oppressive government and president, but to demonstrate their love, respect, honor and reverence to a beloved and cherished president H.E Prof. John Evan Atta Mills. 

Benjamin Nana Appiah Acquaye

BANK OF GHANA SANCTIONS ACCESS BANK GHANA LTD AND FIVE FOREX BUREAUX FOR BREACHES OF THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE ACT, 2006, ACT 723

 

The Bank of Ghana has decided to take action on a number of irregularities in the conduct of foreign exchange transfers by a bank and a number of forex bureaux.

Access Bank Ghana Limited engaged in the externalization of various sums in favour of a company which had no account relationship with the bank and, in another instance, in favour of a company without any documentation. The transfers were made without the documentation required by the Foreign Exchange Act and Guidelines.

The Bank of Ghana has therefore decided to suspend Access Bank Ghana Limited from engaging in foreign exchange business for a period of six months.

The operating licences of the five bureaux, namely, Ocean Drive Forex Bureau, Kafsons Forex Bureau, Fatcoms Forex Bureau, Nabrim Forex Bureau and Sears Forex Bureau, all in Accra, have been revoked. The bureaux purchased huge sums of foreign exchange from banks for onward sale to clients but failed to record these purchases in their books and also did not include the information in the returns submitted to the Bank of Ghana, thereby concealing the end use of such funds.

The Bank of Ghana takes this opportunity to advise all banks and licensed dealers in foreign exchange to strictly abide by the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Act 2006, Act 723 or face stiff sanctions, including prosecution.

Benjamin Nana Appiah Acquaye

www.Biztechafrica.com

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ONE OF GHANA'S YOUNGEST SOFTWARE AND WEB DEVELOPER- RAINDOLF OWUSU

In a very quite environment in the heart of the capital Accra lives the youngest Software and Web Developer who through his vision, resourcefulness and innovativeness has created the Anansi Operating System which is now been patronized not only in  Ghana but also overseas as well. Biztecah Africa caught up with him to learn more…

 Q* Describe the software - what does it do, who is it targeted at/where would it be used? (is it for enterprise or consumers/ business or entertainment/ desktop or mobile)

Anansi Operating System is an Open Suse 12.1 clone OS we developed on top of the linux kernel which re-defines the unix desktop user experience. It is a general purpose operating system from enterprise to entertainment purpose.It is free and you don’t have to buy Office (Word, Power-point, Excel etc.) separately. It comes with Libre Office preinstalled. (Saved ~ $200) You are free from Viruses so you don’t have to buy another upgrade of Norton or any other Antivirus software. (Saved ~ $75) 

Q* What prompted you to create this software - was there a gap in themarket for it?

I am a strong advocate of free and open source software. I realized that proprietary operating systems are being entrenched in our society. Companies and the government spend so much money on paying for licenses for these software whereas these monies could be used to improve other sectors like education. These proprietary software contain so many bugs and also can easily be attacked by viruses and malicious software. I believe that the way forward for advancement in technology is the collaborative use of open source technologies. Africa is on the move, and software and technologies are a powerful tool for boosting economic growth and poverty reduction. There is always a gap in the market for a great innovative product. After facebook and twitter everyone thought there was no gap for any new social network but Google plus and pinterest proved otherwise.

Q* How far advanced is development? (is it ready to go to market?)

It is already in the market. We launched it exactly two weeks ago and it has had over 2314 downloads on my server and the open source community around the world have created a torrent file for the OS  and it has been downloaded more 2370 times making a total of 4684 downloads and still counting. http://www.anansios.oasiswebsoft.com/ 

Q* Is there anything similar on the market already? If so, what makes

this different?

There are so many linux distributions including Ubuntu, Fedora and  Finnix. Anansi has an Gnome 3 desktop environment and  we have embedded all the basic softwares and system wares that will enhance your desktop connectivity examples are wine-devel package,apache2 package, audacity package,libreoffice-base package,anansi softwares,netbeans-javaparser package plus many more.

Q* How will it be distributed?

It is on my website www.oasiswebsoft.com and there is also a torrent file online that you can download it from for free.

Q* Who designed it? (what is their background?)

I built it with my colleagues from my university namely Aaron Nii Adom Nathan and Jeffery Aboagye-Asare. We are now third year university students studying Information technology. We are Open Source Software Developers with proven track record of successful projects eg Anansi Web Browser. We are Capable of working independently and also do well with a distributed team. Also, possess the ability to work on all the states of software development process from requirements to final deployment. We write code in so many programming languages including Java,C++,C,python,php and many more. The othe softwares we embedded in the OS are from open source developers from around the world.

Q* What were the biggest challenges on the way to achieving this new product?

Funding, We spent so much money trying to secure an unlimited server to host the OS for downloads. Most of our programming skills are self-taught but our biggest obstacle we faced was not having an expert to physically train us with some of the technologies we were working with.We did a lot of learning online but It would have been even better if we had a technical person do that in front of us so that we could have a Q and A session.

Q* Where do you see Ghana's software development sector 5 years from now?

5 years from now 80% of softwares used by Ghanaians will be softwares built by Ghanaians or African’s. The software industry is growing at a fast pace and everyone is getting involved.  

Q* What interventions would help the sector grow?

1.Attention and investments from the Government and venture capitalists. 

2.Collaborative software developments will also boost the tech scene in Ghana.You will realize that there are so many developers and startups building similar apps instead  of coming together in the spirit of free and open source development to build one great app. 

Q* What would your advice be to other aspiring entrepreneurs in

Ghana's/Africa's software market?

Always ask God first to direct your path, look for a relevant problem around you, find the right tools and technology to build the solutions. There are so many relevant data made available online to make your work easy. Use these technologies and don’t limit yourself creatively.

Nana Appiah Acquaye

www.biztechafrica.com