ATHOUGH 110 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) hubs have been established across the country over the past year, the hinterland has benefited from only 18, hence, the National Data Management Authority (NDMA) intends to shift its focus to those areas.

Over the next five years, the Ministry of Public Telecommunication’s intention through the NDMA is to establish 212 hubs in the hinterland communities and 214 on the coastland but, Director of the NDMA, Phillip Walcott said they will be focusing more on the hinterland component.

“We still have a long way to go, but we will be working on the hinterland component since it is all part of a plan to link the hinterland and the coast,” he explained.
This year they intend to reach a target of 190 ICT hubs countrywide, with the number of hubs in the hinterland regions being almost on par with those on the coast.
Despite having a deep interest in establishing hubs in the hinterland and rural areas, they still face challenges such as finding a physical space (building) to establish the hub, he said.

“The challenge really is that many communities do not have government or community-owned buildings to utilise; we have to look at ways of getting around that and the only way we can do it, is by collaborating with the residents of the community,” said Walcott, pointing out that residents of Linden built a small building on their own to house the ICT hub.

He called on other communities to replicate that effort, so that they could benefit from the ICT hub which offers free internet access.
In addition, Minister of Public Telecommunications(MoPT), Catherine Hughes, had said the NDMA is mapping out training programmes that will be specific to the individual hubs across the country.

Her ministry is also working closely with the Education Ministry in this regard. A focus area for the MoPT is the ‘Guyanese Girl Code’ programme, which Minister Hughes said has received an overwhelming response.