AU, India make progress on pan-African systems network

The African Union (A.U.) in collaboration with the Indian government is moving forward with a plan to build a pan-African network to establish and link systems specialized in areas such as telemedicine and tele-education.

The network of systems will use satellite and fiber-optic technology to support socioeconomic development and contribute to the achievement of the U.N.'s millennium development goals for the continent.

The project is part of the Indian government's initiative to bridge the digital divide in developing countries, Issah Yahaya, the director of policy, planning, monitoring and evaluation at Ghana's Ministry of Communication said in a recent interview.

The memorandum of understanding for the initiative was signed in South Africa last year by the A.U. and the Indian government, and pieces of the network are starting to come together.

Senegal won the bid to station the main hub while Ghana won the bid to host one of the five super-specialty regional network centers, for which Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi was chosen.

Ibadan University in Nigeria has also been chosen as another one of the super-specialty regional network centers.

The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi in Ghana's Ashanti Region and the University of Ghana, Legon -- the nation's premier university -- will serve as patient health and e-learning centers in the country, Yahaya said. "The contribution by Ghana is to provide the location for the site to serve the centers," Yahaya said.

The project will be funded by both the A.U. and Indian Government while the Telecommunication Consultants of India will implement it and also be responsible for training people to supervise the centers.