Northern Ghanaian wireless practitioners to pilot shared connectivity in Tamale

Supporting the Ministry’s initiative to establish hybrid profit and non-profit Community Information Centres (CICs) across the country, the NGWAUG will be supporting partners in the planning and set up and implementation of the pilot – which, once completed, should provide the blueprint for expansion of the model across Ghana over the coming years.

Coming together

Taking place in August 2007, Winneba Open Digital Village Foundation (WODIV) organized a wireless training workshop in Accra for individuals or groups interested in deploying Wireless Local Area Network technology (WLAN). The invitation was extended across the country and eventually saw attendees from Ghana and Nigeria. It was quickly identified by a number of the participants from Northern Ghana, a pressing need to form a wireless user group to continue to share, exchange and deploy knowledge and skills in WLAN technology. This desire resulted in the formation of the Northern Ghana Wireless Administrators’ User Group (NGWAUG) – whose maiden meeting took place later that month, in Tamale.

Wireless technologies are fast becoming the technology of choice for the deployment of locally affordable internet access to remote and deprived communities. Northern Ghana is an area which necessitates travel across great distances in order to communicate or deliver basic goods and services. Written into the constitution of the NGWAUG, the group – whose membership is made up of practitioners with a varied but complimenting skill-set – aims to promote wireless networking to these deprived communities, to act as a think tank on WLAN technology in Northern Ghana, and to provide consultancy and technical support in the deployment of quick and affordable wireless technology in the region.

Piloting a shared connectivity model in Tamale

The first major project for the newly formed group is to showcase the possibilities and benefits of a shared wireless connectivity model in Salaga, Northern Region. Supporting the government’s initiative to establish hybrid profit and non-profit Community Information Centers (CICs) across the country, the NGWAUG will be assisting in the set up of the pilot – which, once completed, will form the blueprint for expansion of the model across the country.

This development provides a boost for the CIC initiative and IICD activities in Ghana. As part of the Memorandum of Understanding between IICD and the Ministry, IICD is responsible for the provision of strategic and technological support in the deployment of the CICs and in particular in the Northern Part of Ghana. Seeking consultancy and expertise of this kind usual requires involving outside help – predominantly from the global ‘north’. In this instance, local capacity was already established in the form of the user group, negating the need to rely on external help.

Getting practical experience

There was an initial frustration amongst the group that the materials and infrastructure were not available locally to bring the skills into practice. Understandably, the group was chomping at the bit to take advantage of this new technology in pursuit of their group mission. Compounded with this frustration was the knowledge that - as is the case with all newly acquired skills – without an opportunity to deploy it, knowledge soon becomes rusty, or worse still, redundant as technology updates and moves on. Primarily consisting of technicians, the user group was understandably keen to get immediate practical experience in the implementation of WLAN technology. Landing the CIC project pilot will consequently serve as a follow up training for the group and establish them as the regional experts in WLAN deployment, both for other Northern CICs, and for other interested parties who could benefit from wireless technologies.

More about the CIC initiatve.
More about the Ghana country programme.