On the 8th of July 2014, the Head of Service opened the above course at the Department of Geography of the University of Ghana. In his welcome address noted that the course could not have come at a better time than this because of the usefulness of Geographic Information System (GIS). According to him, GIS is basically a software designed to capture, store, edit, manipulate, analyse, share, manage and present all types of Geographical Data. Such data could help the Service to make informed decisions in spatial planning, revenue mobilisation and the current street naming project.

Dr. Mahama reiterated that, the benefits of GIS were so critical that the earlier the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) availed themselves of such benefits the better for them in terms of the improvement of their Internally Generated Fund (IGF). He continued that, any meaningful improvement of the IGF would have tremendous impact on local development/service delivery, which is one of the cardinal objectives of the decentralisation process.

Similarly, he noted that, the above benefits of GIS, therefore, convinced him to sign the current Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Ghana for our staff to undertake this course as part of the Service’s continuous capacity building drive. The Head of Service also intimated that the knowledge to be acquired should invariably help the management in their decision-making process as previously mentioned. He specifically, drummed home the importance of the street naming project, which was one of the Presidential Initiatives aimed at identifying people and organisations with specific addresses.

The course was organised for over one hundred (100) participants specifically drawn from Planning, Information Technology and Budget departments of the MMDAs across the country.

In his concluding remarks, Dr. Mahama thanked the University authorities especially Dr. Alexander Owusu of the Department of Geography- Legon, who worked tirelessly with the Service to put the course together. He further urged the participants to maintain a healthy academic atmosphere and more importantly, should be good Ambassadors of the Service.

On that note, he declared the ten day course formally opened and wished the participants a happy stay in Accra.