President John Dramani Mahama has proposed a partnership model that could see ICT laboratories rolled out across districts nationwide, with District Assemblies funding the construction of buildings while the Helping Africa Foundation supplies and installs the equipment inside.
The President floated the idea on Saturday during the commissioning of the Yamoransa Model Lab 13 in Damango, the latest in a series of ICT facilities built through a collaboration between the Helping Africa Foundation and the government.
He said the model used to deliver the Damango lab could be replicated systematically if District Assemblies came on board as building partners.
“We can dovetail this into our ICT programme where we partner with the district assemblies to invest in putting up the building and the Helping Africa Foundation bringing the equipment to install in the buildings,” President Mahama said.
The proposal is rooted in a partnership that began years earlier when the Helping Africa Foundation, through its collaboration with the Lordina Foundation, started supplying medical equipment including autoclaves, incubators, heat lamps and maternity beds to deprived rural hospitals.
That relationship eventually evolved into the ICT lab programme, with the Damango facility being the latest to be completed, following an earlier one in Techiman North.
President Mahama said the approach fits into the government’s broader B-STEM agenda and could serve as a cost-sharing framework for expanding digital infrastructure without placing the full financial burden on the state.
The Damango lab, which runs on solar energy, was commissioned as part of his two-day Resetting Ghana working tour of the Savannah region.
Richard Aniagyei, ISD
