IICD supported project: National Information Clearing House (NICH)

Countries: Ghana [GH]
Sectors: governance

Summary

Access to accurate and timely information is a critical prerequisite for national development. Policy-makers, planners, researchers, investors and the general public depend on reliable information for planning and decision-making. Lacking access and co-ordination of the Ghana's information flows is presenting an important bottleneck to effective and transparent policy formulation and implementation and thereby, good governance. Currently, in Ghana, a number of institutions and companies are developing electronic systems that cater to the varied information needs of such user groups. Among such institutions, however, there is very limited exchange of information and in terms of users, there is limited access. An example is the development of many databases at different government agencies in the absence of a coordinated system for information flows. The Ghanaian Ministry of Communications (MOC) has the mission to develop policies that will help to integrate communication technologies and public information systems.

Update

Updated: 2006-08-03

Update (June 2001)<br />
A pilot phase of this project is nearing completion. The facilities at
the Ministry of Communications have been upgraded and the team has been
reinforced. An extensive ICT training programme for the project team
(technical staff and information officers) at the Ministry and at
linked institutions on information management, database and
web-development is ongoing; 2) development of the official Government
of Ghana web site, and 3) provision of official public information
through the website, including information on public campaigns
(elections, AIDS, etc). The proposal will be upgraded and the
Government of Ghana and Donors’ contributions will be sought to take it
to full scale.<br />

Objectives

At the IICD ICT Roundtable conference-jointly organised by ISOG and IICD in May 1998-NICH was identified by the MOC as a Project that supports its efforts. The specific Project objective is:

To enhance the coordination and improve the exchange of administrative information between key public organisations; thereby, providing citizens and companies access to legal and economic information by means of public access points to a web-based information system.
By linking the various institutional databases through a national web-based metadatabase (NICH), relevant information coming from different sources is made readily available through access points. The NICH will 1) furnish access to the information of 4 key government institutions; and 2) will provide advisory services to assist up to 45 other interested government and private institutions in linking up to the clearinghouse.

Technical inputs required to realise the Project include: 5 files servers; 5 airlinks; 5 routers; 16 PCs; 5 Windows NT sotware licenses and 1 customised application to be developed.

Development Impacts

Improved exchange of legal and economic information among and between key participating governmental institutions and the public, helps to increase the efficiency, accountability and transparency of governments. Electronic access to such government information at various access points will enable citizens and companies to make more effective decisions in daily civil and commercial activities. To illustrate, if someone seeks information on starting a small business in Ghana, through the NICH, that person will be able to go to the public library, visit the clearinghouse website and consult the databases of the several ministries from one single location. The activity does not duplicate existing facilities at the participating institutions, but provides the missing elements required to leverage each institution's knowledge base. Thus, the Project ensures cost-effective coordination, access and exchange of information on a national level.

Another important aspect of the Project is that it provides training and capacity building for NICH staff and future users. During the Project's first year, an extensive training will address the capacity building needs of the 16 Project staff and of the staff from the 4 partner institutions. To create awareness around the Project's benefits, workshops are to be organised on the institutions' premises for both internal personnel (expected 150) and for the general public. Of the total Project investment costs, nearly 15% is devoted to staff training and future user. In general, these efforts will contribute to improvement in the ICT knowledge and skills of the employees of participating institutions.

The clearinghouse approach is expected to become a widely replicated solution for the coordination and distribution of information for other groups in the society such as citizens and companies. The MOC's Project experience will be available to be applied to all interested groups via assistance services offered by the MOC. In the longer term, the Project is to serve as a foundation for a national information clearinghouse that will link all public and private institutions in Ghana, improving availability and accessibility to information for users anywhere and anytime.

Market and finance

The Project is both financially and technologically sustainable. Project revenues are derived from 1) public access to partner organisations' information services; and 2) MOC-provided advisory services to other institutions. The MOC and Project partner organisations are expected to generate a limited amount of revenues to finance and ensure Project sustainability for a longer period. The lion's share of revenues, however, will be generated from the second income source-expertise that can be sold in the form of advisory services to other organisations in both government and private sector.

Following a 6-month timeframe for Project set-up, the demand in Year 1 for link-up advisory services is expected to be 1 institution. During the Project's first full year of advisory services offering (Year 2), the demand level is conservatively held constant to accommodate time required to raise public awareness of the Project and its benefits. Awareness raising activities include promotional materials and workshops. The demand for institutional advisory services is expected to increase to 11 institutions by Year 6. The advisory service is USD5000 per institution; a charge founded on cost-based pricing. In terms of partner organisations' information services, revenues are expected to rise 25% over the period from Year 3 to Year 6.

In contrast to the Year 1 reliance on grant funding, the projected revenues for Years 2 to 6 allow for a recovery of the operational costs. Moreover, towards the end of the activity period, the Project is expected to generate a limited profit to be applied to reserves for re-investment. The Project is forecasted to be self-sustaining by Year 6.

Budget

Financial Rate of Return: N/A				Project Life: 6 years			Break-Even: N/A
Net Profit (Loss):
	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5	Year 6	Capital Cost:	Financing Plan:
Revenues	11.0	47.0	55.0	63.8	73.4	84.3
Operating Costs	45.8	48.1	50.5	53.0	55.6	58.4		Owner/Operator own contribution (1st year)	11.0
Depreciation	22.2	22.2	22.2	22.2	22.2	22.2	133.0	External Funds:
Other investment costs	63.0	--.-	--.-	--.-	--.-	--.-		Required Funds	233.0
Profit (Loss)	(56.9)	(23.2)	(17.6)	(11.4)	(4.4)	3.7
Working Capital Requirements 2.3								Total	244.0
								Investment Opportunity:	Grant

Project Owner : Ministry of Communications

Project Partners : Private Enterprise Foundation,
Institute of Engineers,
Internet Society of Ghana (ISOG)
IICD

Contact Organisation : IICD