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Finatrade Donates To Kofi Annan Centre

26.03.2009 LISTEN
By Paul Akweterh Mensah & Ewura Esi Twum - newtimesonline.com

The Finatrade Foundation, a charitable organisation of the Finatrade Group of Companies yesterday presented a cheque for GHc 45,000 to the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence (KACE) in Information and and Communication Technology (ICT) in support of the centre's i2CAP project.

The i2CAP project is a computer programming competition which seeks to support senior high schools to generate enthusiasm in the use and application of ICT through computer programming competitions

Over 10,000 students from 300 senior high schools selected across the country are expected to acquire basic computer programming skills out of whom 1200 will be selected to participate in a regional competition from which a team will be picked to represent Ghana in the 21st edition of the International Olympiad Informatics (IOI) to be held in Bulgaria in August.

IOI is a global computer science competition, which seeks to discover, encourage and challenge talented youth in the field of informatics.

Ms Joyce Aryee,  member of the Finatrade Foundation who presented the cheque, said the gesture was in line with the foundation's commitment to the promotion of ICT education in the country.

She said the foundation, as a charitable wing of the Finatrade Group of Companies was more concerned about ensuring a sound human resource base to drive the nation's developmental aspirations to a much desirable position.

Ms Aryee stated that ICT had enormous importance which could help promote the developmental agenda of the country.

“We live in a knowledge based world and the use of ICT is critical to the enhancement of productivity”, she added.

Mrs Dorothy Gordon, the Director General of the Advanced Information Technology Institute-KACE, who received the cheque thanked the foundation for the gesture and gave the assurance that the money would be used for it intended purpose.

The Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo stressed the need for ICT use as a tool for development.

He said in order to meet the challenges of revolutionary ideas in present times, it was important to adopt ICT use, and+ advised students to make use of various interventions available in the area of ICT.

The Minister of Communication, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, said it was important that more efforts were directed at the promotion of ICT education in the country, explaining that ICT services could boost the country's Gross Domestic Product.

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