Examining Internet Usage Patterns on Socio-Economic Benefits of Marginalised Communities: The Case of Community Information Centres In Ghana

2018

English

In reinforcing the significance and potential usefulness of ICTs, the former Ghanaian UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, pointed out in 1999 that communication and the access to communication technologies are just like social security, fundamental human rights and that the digital divide is a pressing humanitarian issue. He said publicly: Three days from now, the world’s population will pass the six billion mark. Five out of those six billion live in Southern countries. For many of them, the great scientific and technical achievements of our era might as well be taking place on another planet. The capacity to receive, download and share information through electronic networks, the freedom to communicate freely across national boundaries – these must become realities for all people. These people lack many things: jobs, shelter, food, health care and drinkable water. Today, being cut off from basic telecommunications services is a hardship almost as acute as these other deprivations, and may indeed reduce the chances of finding remedies to them, (Annan, 1999). In 2003, the government passed into law the Ghana Information and Communications Technology for Accelerated Development (G-ICT4AD) policy document. The policy sought to spearhead the development effort of the country with a focus on the implementation of strategic ICT initiatives to transform the country into a middle-income economy (G-ICT4AD, 2003). The policy proposed the implementation of universal access centres as the best approach to introduce the pervasive power of ICTs in underserved and underprivileged communities mostly located in rural areas of Ghana. Contained in the policy document was a very broad vision of a future Ghanaian modernity based on ICT. The policy specifically identified the establishment of universal access centres as a 2 driving force to train citizens with requisite ICT skills needed in support of the developmental effort of the country (G-ICT4AD, 2003). The vision was to ensure that all citizens, especially the marginalised in rural communities be granted access to Internet facilities. This vision paved the way for the establishment of the government funded Telecentres, called Community Information Centres. Ghana was a party to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals framework, which called for universal access to ICTs for poverty reduction and sustainable development (Gilhooly, 2005). Ultimately the CICs were intended to provide access to ICTs for underserved communities with the expectation of reducing inequalitiesin access to ICTs and other online services (Ayoung, Abbott & Kashefi, 2016). The Ghana CIC project was a hybrid for-profit telecentre and non-profit community resource centre, implemented by the Ministry of Communication through its subsidiary, Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC). The initial funding was from the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative (GIFEC, 2013). The vision of the CIC project was to ensure universal access to ICT applications for accelerated growth and development through the efficient and timely availability of information. The purpose of the project was to provide business services and community development information to remote communities and to open such areas to the information technology era. Its eventual adoption and diffusion would aid in the reshaping of the Ghanaian rural economy into an ICT-led economy by creating a new society shaped by information technology.

Bekoe, S.; Atiso, K.; Ayoung, D. A.; Dzandu, L.; Kumangkem, K.K.