It's “Impossible” To Use A Day To Create GhanaPost GPS – IT Expert Rebuts Fellow

The Head at the Faculty of IT and Communication Studies at the University of Professional Studies, Mr. Charles Nii Ayiku Ayiku has laughed off claims by a colleague IT researcher that government was “lazy” to use eight months to develop a ‘one-day’ GhanaPost GPS app.

“Really, just a day for such app? Then I have to go back to school and learn that process to use it. It is impossible,” he dismissed the claims.

An IT researcher, Kingsley Komla Elikem, has raised concerns about the cost and quality of the newly introduced digital property addressing system; the GhanaPost GPS App, while referring to the government as ‘lazy’.

The National Digital Property Address System was launched about a month ago to facilitate easy location of addresses and to boost emergency service delivery nationwide.

Many have criticized government over monies being channeled into the operation of the app as well as its effectiveness as projected - others claim that the app is a duplicate if Google map.

Vokacom, the company that designed the app has however come out to reject the claims, their justification being that it was built on a global addressing system that was designed solely by them.

Mr. Elikem argues that the eight-month period used to design the app was lethargic. According to him, it requires a maximum of just a day to produce the Ghana Post GPS app.

But speaking on issue on NEAT FM’s morning show dubbed ‘Ghana Montie’, Charles Nii Ayiku Ayiku admits to the fact that the effectiveness of the app has not met its expectation.

According to him, government is not doing much to educate the public about the app – “Personally, I have downloaded and deleted the app several times on my phone for some reasons.”

Explaining the cost involved, he said “building an application involves a lot of things. The GPS is just one component of an infrastructure to build the proper system. So when we are discussing the GhanaPost GPS, we must discuss it holistically to avoid distortion.”

Adding that “Government should educate us properly. They should come out with a communication strategy that will make Ghanaians understand, otherwise a lot of misinformation and other issues will come up that will not make the good intention behind the GPS successful.”