In his acceptance speech, Dr. Robert Awuah-Baffour said he was delighted to be at the launch of the Strategic Plan, and was greatly honoured to chair such an august occasion. He commended the board members and applauded the general GINKS membership on achieving such a feat. He added that GINKS has shown the leadership necessary for transformation of ICT in Ghana.  According to Dr. Robert Awuah-Baffour “if you cannot measure it, don’t plan for it”.

This is what Dr. Baffour has to say about the organisation called GINKS. For those gathered here who do not know much about this unique organization with a funny acronym- GINKS, The Ghana Information Network for Knowledge Sharing (acronymed GINKS) was set up in 2003 as a result of collaboration between the International Institute for Communications and Development (IICD) and its local partners. The main mission of GINKS is to streamline all the "disjointed or SILOS structured" as I call it ICT projects, initiatives, and programs in Ghana to better provide solutions to the challenges and problems they are designed to solve.

Today, after about seven years of operation here in Ghana, GINKS has shown the leadership that is needed to transform Ghana using Information technology. Their concept of bringing together all CT projects and Initiatives exemplifies the fact that transformation of Ghana is a collective collaboration amongst all Ghanaians and the rest of the world and it is only through such collaboration that we can move the country to the desired level. The three year Strategic Plan being launched today is very straightforward and practical in its approach.

He pleasantly asserted that the GINKS Strategic Plan from his assessment is very measurable. Using India as an instance, Dr. Baffour also said that the value of ICT in changing industries all over the world cannot be overemphasized. The activities of GINKS will thus help Ghana take its share of global development, and even though a solid democracy is a must, Ghana needs to focus more on ICT driven activities.

Dr. Baffour  said “We know the value of ICT in changing economies around the world. Today, India is sitting on a 500 Billion Dollar BPO industry mostly due to their capacity in ICT infrastructure. Several countries in the same boat as Ghana by way of development are gearing up to tap into this huge BPO and KPO industries. Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Kenya, are just a few examples “

After Dr. Baffour, the Executive Secretary and Co-ordinator of GINKS, Ibrahim Inusah took the guests through the processes which brought about the Strategic Plan. He mentioned that the document being launched is the product of a two year work, and hoped that the media and general public at the function will support GINKS by joining forces with the organisation in moving ICT4D in Ghana higher, through propagating the Strategic plan.

After Mr. Inusah’s speech, Madam Eva Lokko who spoke on behalf of the GINKS membership, thanked the guests for honouring GINKS invitation to the launch and congratulated GINKS for being able to bring people together to get the Strategic Plan done. She opined that ICT4D is not happening in Ghana as ICT4D from her perspective is not just a point where people use ICT but also where people gain from ICT. She said that GINKS is building a platform that will bring together every ICT orientation in Ghana to share knowledge. She also recommended that the media should intensify their partnership with GINKS as there is a lot of ICT information in Ghana available with GINKS which need to be disseminated.

Officially launching the GINKS strategic plan handbook, Dr. Baffour, stated how impressed he was with the timely work, in a society where people do not understand that donors help start a project but expects that the project should do things to sustain itself.

Mrs. Abigail Thompson (a GINKS board member), in her vote of thanks on behalf of GINKS, thanked the guests for attending the function and encouraged those who were not yet part of the GINKS membership to do so in order to expand the good work it is doing for ICT4D in Ghana.

After this, the Moderator at the occasion Mr. Edward Addo-Dankwa, officially brought the meeting to a close with a promise to guests that the soft copy of the Strategic will be sent to them by email, and they can also visit the GINKS website at www.ginks.org to download it.