TELE-INNOVATION PROGRAMME

Participants at the Salaga CIC tele-innovation workshop

Telecentres are public information and communication technology (ICT) access centres that may range from simple public call centres and internet kiosks run by entrepreneurs and public agencies, to community information service centres that offer more than just access to ICTs. Since the late 1990s, a significant number of telecentres have been developed as a means of providing access to telecommunications in rural communities. This first generation of telecentres deployed mainly in rural areas, is slowly becoming more or less obsolete due to technological developments and the rapid diffusion of mobile technologies in Africa as well as the rest of the world.

It is in this regard that the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is being requested by several member States to help them transform their existing telecentres into agents of economic and social change beyond access to information technology. The transformation is expected to include change in management and ownership structures and in the nature and characteristics of services of the centres.

The concept proposes key steps to be undertaken in transforming the telecentres into innovative institutions offering a number of value-added products whilst promoting technical and socio-economic change in their host communities. This would in effect accord most of the telecentres the opportunity to be in the business of processing and providing timely information on important development issues including agricultural market prices, health issues and current and international news, as well as small business support to low income areas, and access to e-government and e-health services, as well as community based multi-media training and production opportunities. 

This noble gesture, was to start as a pilot project in two CIC's in Ghana- Salaga CIC in the northern region and Weta CIC in the votal region.