CIO Summit ends in Accra

The summit brings together the Technology Managers and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) of leading business entities to examine trends and to deliberate on how their companies can get value from their IT implementations.

“ICT has assumed a pivotal role in businesses and entrepreneurs have become significantly dependent on IT,” Andy Ojei, CEO of Zenith Bank said at the summit.

“I must mention that there sometimes could be a gap between what companies are spending and the benefits they are getting from their investments. These gaps, wherever they exist, is often due to the fact that most businesses do not understand what is possible but most importantly, they do not see the huge advantages of using technology to move information very quickly and efficiently to everyone in the company,” Ojei elaborated. Akwasi Pianim Osei, Managing Director of FITConsult and ICT Personality of the year, said the role of CIOs are similar to pilots; when all the systems run smoothly, no one notices. “But when systems go down or are partially unavailable –then your jobs are usually on the line,” Osei said.

Other speakers included Solomon King Adiyiah, CTO of Innovare and Kojo Anyane Yeboah of PricewaterhouseCoopers. The 3rd West African CIO.Summit 2009 takes place at LA Palm Beach Hotel 28th to 29th May 2009.