SMIDO SETS UP ICT CENTRE AT SUAME MAGAZINE ... (Page 29)

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu, Kumasi

An ultra-modern Information Communications Technology (ICT) centre is being established at the Suame Magazine by the Kofi Annan ICT Centre of Excellence and the Suame Magazine Industrial Development Organisation (SMIDO) to help incorporate ICT into the industrial operations of the Suame industrial estate.
Currently, SMIDO has acquired a four-storey building to serve as offices and training point for artisans.
It has also selected six artisanal engineers to undergo training at the Kofi Annan Centre to manage the project after graduating.
The project hopes to salvage the declining prospects of the vehicular repair cluster at Suame, and thereby revamp the industrial operations of the estate through the incorporation of modern advanced technology in artisanal engineering in Ghana and West Africa.
The collaboration between the Kofi Annan Centre and SMIDO was the result of a visit by officials of SMIDO to the Kofi Annan Centre as part of its advocacy programme.
SMIDO, an organisation formed by artisans of the Suame Magazine to transform the industrial estate into a world-class centre, is currently engaged in a number of activities, all with the focus of changing the development focus of artisans.
Courses to be studied at the centre will include basic knowledge in the use of software, development of and use of business software for industrial operations, and advanced ICT driven auto diagnostic studies and applications.
The ICT project is incorporated in the policy blueprint of the SMIDO, which was launched in Kumasi last year.
SMIDO’S industrial policy blueprint emphasises strongly on the ICT project, which will also serve the West African sub-region.
SMIDO is, in fact, determined to establish the centre as the auto ICT consultancy centre for artisanal engineering operations in West Africa.
According to the policy document, the ICT project has a focus to “salvage the declining prospects of the vehicular repair cluster to revamp the industrial operations of the estate through the incorporation of modern advanced technology in artisanal engineering in Ghana and West Africa as a whole”.
The President of SMIDO, Mr George Asamoah Amankwa, told the Daily Graphic that the absence of an industrial policy to determine the direction and content of development of the industrial estate had been a contributory factor to the unfavourable growth rate of the Suame Magazine.
He expressed the conviction that the future looked brighter as they forged ahead with various groups to bring life to the magazine.