Bandwidth problems in West Africa may soon become a thing of the past when the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) broadband submarine cable comes online this December. The US$700 million will interconnect a total of 23 countries in Europe and West Africa, including two Integra and GBI clients, Nigeria and Ghana. This massive infrastructure project aims [...]

Integra, under its Global Broadband and Innovations program, is supporting the government of Ghana to better promote broadband Internet use throughout the country. Ghana has a long and successful record of promoting ICT use – it was one of the first countries in Africa to establish a Universal Service Fund (in 2005) and was recently [...]

As written in this blog before, there has been continued innovation in the mobile banking sector in developing countries this year. But, as surmised by CGAP, there is a greater need to find a balance of products that meet the specific needs of those who traditionally have not  had  access to formal financial services. While [...]

Six schools have benefitted from the first phase of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) e-school initiative in Ghana. This initiative aims to equip young people with the skills and knowledge they need to participate in the global economy. The selected schools were Wa Senior High School, Ola Girls Senior High School, Walewale Senior [...]

A non-governmental organisation in Ghana, CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education), is currently building three ultra-modern Information Communication Technology (ICT) centres, backed by Google’s Cooperate Giving Council. Construction is currently underway in the Nanumba North (Bimbilla), Mamprusi East (Gambaga) and Gushegu districts in the Northern region. The Bimbila ICT centre has been completed and commissioned. Construction [...]

In an ode to International Women’s Day, we wanted to review a few of the mobile health projects and programs directly focused on women’s health issues. mHealth has a great variance in the type of applications used to promote and assist in women’s health. This ranges from sending health information about pregnancy via basic text [...]

The theme for this years’ International Women’s Day celebration is “Empower Rural Women – End Hunger and Poverty.” This is in recognition of the critical role and contribution women, especially rural women are playing globally to enhance agricultural and rural development, improve food security and help reduce poverty levels in their communities. Unfortunately, there are others [...]

Eleven Ghanian government departments and agencies will commence with e-government projects to improve service to its citizens, the government said on Wednesday. These agencies include Food and Drugs Board, National Communication Authority, Births and Death Registry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional integration, Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Passport Office, National Health Insurance Scheme, National Information Technology [...]

I was part of a recent USAID After Hours Seminar Series (even though this particular one was a breakfast event) sponsored by the Microenterprise Development office on the topic “Viewing Value Chain and Household Finance From a Demand Perspective.” The discussion was led by Geoffrey Chalmers, a senior technical advisor at ACDI/VOCA and Jason Agar, [...]