Geekcorps Ghana

Report

The bridges.org/IICD ICT-Enabled Development Case Study Series profiled Geekcorps Ghana, an initiative matching skilled technology volunteers from the developed world with small and medium-sized businesses in Accra. Implemented by Geekcorps International and funded by USAID until 2003, volunteers spent three to four months on-site transferring technology skills to help local companies grow, addressing a shortage of workplace-ready ICT skills among Ghanaian computer science graduates. Between the project’s start in February 2000 and the case study’s publication, five groups of volunteers had been placed in Ghana, a country then grappling with costly telecoms infrastructure, frequent power failures and low computer density, but with a small, growing population of returning Ghanaian expatriates bringing business experience back from the US and Europe.