Public Agenda (Accra)
Jessica Mcelfresh
21 July 2008
Accra — A technology transformation seminar aimed to ignite a conversation about the role of Ghana's technological innovations took place at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT on July 17th.
Three companies presented their unique approaches for developing technology in Ghana with the eventual goal of pushing Ghana's technology sector into a competitive market alongside international technology firms. The companies, including mPedigree, Softribe and Omatek Computers, each featured either world-first or world-class innovations.
During his introduction of the seminar, moderator Mr. Kafui Prebbie, an ICT educator, stressed the importance of all technology saying, "We must innovate or, as some people say, we will die." Mr. Prebbie said that learning how technology and innovation have made changes in the lives of Ghanaians is critical.
Mr. Prebbie also talked about the role of technology in developing a consciousness of national advancement. The chairman Professor Owusu Bennoah added that Ghana's goal to achieve mid-income group status by 2015 can only be achieved through science and technology.
After visiting Cambridge University in the UK, Purdue University in the USA and multiple universities in India, Mr. Bennoah admitted that Ghana still has a lot to learn. But, he said, Ghana must continue asking itself how technology can benefit the people and how it can meet competitive international standards throughout the process of development.
The first company presented was by Mr. Ashifi Gogo, chief technologist for mPedigree. Mr. Gogo explained that mPedigree is currently working on its drug authenticating technology and testing its labeling system to identify fake drugs in the market. According to the World Health Organization, many countries in Africa have regions where more that 30% of the drugs sold are counterfeit. mPedigree is working to eliminate the dangers surrounding counterfeit drugs by distinguishing fake from real drugs at the consumer level.
mPedigree developed a system of applying scratch-off labels to medicines at distribution centers. After purchasing the medicines, consumers can text the number on the label in to a central database for a confirmation of whether or not the medicine is counterfeit. The database can trace where a drug was made, distributed and sold in order to ensure consumer security. In 2008, mPedigree began testing their free SMS-based authentication service in Kumasi and Accra.
The second company presented was by Mr. Herman Chinery-Hesse for Softribe. Softribe is a software production company that is currently refining a system for facilitating tele-commerce and micropayments for people living in rural areas. The technology will allow people to coordinate purchasing and delivering goods from previously inaccessible areas. Mr. Chinery-Hesse hopes that the technology will greatly decrease Ghana's dependence on foreign aid by allowing Ghanaians to export their own goods.
The third company was presented by Mr. Kobina Jackson from Omatek, a company that manufactures computers in Accra. "Omatek is working toward an integrated computer production industry," said Mr. Jackson while explaining Omatek's goals. Omatek is self-proclaimed as Africa's number one homegrown personal computer brand and it manufactures desktops, notebooks, casings, servers, monitors and home entertainment systems in their location in Accra. Their annual production is 64,000 machines and they employ over 50 people in Ghana and another 300 in Nigeria.
All three companies emphasized their role as innovators and leaders in their fields and each addressed the challenges of protecting their ideas with expensive patents and maintaining high production standards in order to compete in a global market. The organizer of the event, Ms. Sarata Adams from the AITI-KACE office, encouraged all young entrepreneurs with unique ideas for technological innovations to contact her in order to foster development of every idea possible.
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