The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and the National Information Society Agency (NIA) of the Republic of Korea, are collaborating on the Information Access Center (IAC), a project meant to enhance ICT accessibility globally.
As part of this effort to narrow the global digital divide, NIA reached out to UHAS in November 2020 and invited us to submit a proposal for consideration. UHAS Vice Chancellor, Professor John Gyapong, then constituted a committee led by Mr. Fred Hayibor of the University Library to work on the proposal. Fortunately, the UHAS proposal has been selected, the only one from Ghana, alongside four other countries.
Subsequently, an MoU was signed between the governments of Ghana and South Korea in November 2021. Since then, there have been fruitful interactions between the personnel at NIA and the committee in UHAS; and on Tuesday 17 may 2022, contractors from the NIA met with UHAS architects and other officials of the Works and Physical Development Directorate to inspect the project site and complete processes of getting the location ready for the IAC Project.
Mr. Hayibor said, “the project will be in four phases: the design stage, where they are currently, where the technical teams from both sides will communicate and understand each other on the requirements and modifications needed at the location of the project; the interior construction stage, where the various fixings will be done within the project space; equipment installation stage, where the NIA team will bring all the equipment needed such as audio visuals equipment, etc.; and finally, the supervision stage to make sure that the final project will reflect the original designs agreed on by both sides.”
Prior to touring the Laboratory Complex at UHAS, which will house the IAC, the team from NIA, led by Mr. Jungsub who is the Executive Principal and Mr. Taehwan Kim, the Architect of Sol Architects, South Korea, paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor and other members of UHAS Senior Management, including Dr. Cynthia Sena Kpeglo, Registrar; Dr. William Vidogah, Director of WPDD; and Senior Architect Ruth Xoladem Ayittey.
