eBrochure: Burial Service for the late Mr. Elias Ametorwobla Kodzo Deletsu

Kindly click on the button below to download the funeral brochure for the late Mr. Elias Ametorwobla Kodzo Deletsu onto your smartphones or tablets.

IIPGH Organizes Digital Skills Training for Teachers ...as part of their Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

Education, whether formal or informal, is crucial to the development of any country. The major conduit for education is teachers. It is therefore fair to conclude that teachers play an influential role in the development of any country. Teachers must therefore be held in high regard and their professional development made paramount by national leaders.

This is one major reason the National Teaching Council (NTC), an agency of the Ministry of Education, has been mandated by the Education Regulation Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023) to promote teacher professionalism in Ghana. They do this through diverse means, among which is Continuous Professional Development (CPD). NTC, having recognized partnerships as an effective tool for a wider reach across the country, decided to work together with Service Providers (SPs) who have similar objectives of improving teacher professionalism in Ghana. The NTC also regulates the activities of these SPs to ensure that they do not exploit the teachers.

The Institute of ICT Professionals, Ghana (IIPGH) is a professional association accredited by the NTC as a service provider to conduct CPD programs for staff of Ghana Education Service (GES). The Institute, recognizing the importance of basic ICT skills for teachers in the delivery of their materials, successfully organized their second CPD workshop dubbed “Introduction to Basic Digital Skills” in the Ho West and Adaklu Districts, Volta Region from 1st to 4th November 2022. Because of the numbers expected, the workshop was delivered in 5 cohorts.

Awudome Senior High School & Abutia Senior High Technical School – Training Centre

The workshop began at the Awudome SHS and Abutia SHTS on Tuesday 1st November 2022. The officers present at the Awudome SHS included Mr. David Aidam Kordjo - Ho West District Training Officer; Mr. Peter Nambia - Assistant Headmaster of Awudome Senior High School, representing the School’s Headmaster; and Mr. Francis Yaw Agbemadi - the Ho West District Education Director. The IIPGH team included Mrs. Gifty Mottey - the Director of Administration of the Institute; Mr. Emmanuel Darko—facilitator and ICT Coordinator for GES; Miss Deborah Ofori-Dartey—Digital Skills Training Supervisor, IIPGH; and Mr. Desmond Kitsi—Founder and Executive Director of Genius I.T. Brainery, Ho.

Mr. Nambia spoke briefly about the history of the school and the courses currently being offered. The district training officer then introduced the director of the district to the participants, who highlighted the various areas to be covered in the workshop and reiterated the importance of Continuous Staff Development. The Director expressed confidence in the capabilities of the Institute and formally declared the workshop open. Mr. Agbemadi sat in throughout and fully participated in the workshop. Mrs. Gifty Mottey spoke briefly about the Institute and Mr. Emmanuel Darko continued by showing them how to connect their laptops to the internet using their phones as hotspots and how to access and navigate the NTC portal (password reset, verification of credentials, etc..). Mr. Desmond Kitsi facilitated the workshop and helped the teachers create tables in Microsoft Word to be used in presenting data, such as attendance and school timetable. All the teachers used either their own laptops supplied by the government or supplementary laptops brought in by the service provider, IIPGH. Some issues faced by teachers in relation to their points were addressed and those that were not resolved during the workshop were noted down to be attended to after the workshop. This session began at 10:30 am and ended at 3:30 pm.

Group picture of Participants at Awudome Senior High School Training Center

The 2nd cohort had their workshop at Abutia Senior High Technical School. Mr. Owusu Mordzifa, a training officer in the district, oversaw the center. He spoke on the importance of the workshop and highlighted the topics to be covered, including the resolution of their NTC portal issues. The IIPGH team included Mr. David Gowu - The Executive Director of the Institute; Mr. Michael Obiri-Agyare - facilitator and Municipal IT Support Officer for the Ledzokuku Municipal Education Office; Mr. Bright Botchway - Tanyigbe SHS ICT Instructor; and Miss. Barbara Asiamah - Digital Skills Supervisor and facilitator, IIPGH. Mr. Gowu outlined the activities of the institute, the importance of ICT, and why teachers must take part in such workshops and acquire skills on the topics to be covered. He showed them how to connect a laptop to the internet using their smartphones and how to use Microsoft Word for their teaching activities. Mr. Obiri-Agyare facilitated the training on the portal, showing them how to access and navigate the portal.

Teachers participating in Digital Skills Workshop at Abutia Senior High Technical School Centre

Kpedze Senior High School & Avatime Senior High School Training Centres

The workshop for Ho West continued the second day, 2nd November 2022, at Kpedze Senior High School and Avatime Senior High School. The same content as the previous day was used. Present on this day was the District Education Director, who encouraged the teachers to give their full attention to the workshop. The workshop began at 10:00 am and ended at 2:00 pm. This concluded the training for Ho West and Three Hundred and Seventeen (317) teaching and non-teaching staff of GES in the district attended.

A participant learning at Kpedze Senior High School Training Center

IIPGH Donates Desktop Computers to Support GES Directorate and Students

As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to support stakeholders, the IIPGH team donated four (4) computers to the Volta Regional Education Directorate to aid in the smooth running of their activities. IIPGH later in the day donated ten (10) computers to the Ho-Dome RC Primary/JHS school complex to help the students with practical digital skills such as coding. Both parties appreciated the donations and promised to use them for their intended purpose while maintaining them well. Management of the institutions also seized the opportunity to request more devices, like printers, scanners, etc. to improve the adoption of ICT in the region.

Donation of Desktop computers to Hpo Regional Education Directortate

Donation of Desktop computers to Ho-Dome RC Primary/JHS School Complex

Abuadi/Tsrefe Senior High School Centre

The final workshop was held at the Abuadi/Tsrefe (Gbekor) Senior High School in the Adaklu District on Friday 4^th November 2022. The workshop began at 10:30 am and ended at 2:30 pm. Turnout at this center, which was the only center for the district, was very low. Most teachers who registered to attend the workshop did not turn up, with only forty (40) teachers in attendance. Although the internet connectivity from the major Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) was very poor, the tutors had practical lessons in Microsoft word.

Training ongoing in the Adaklu District

It will be fair to argue that the use of productivity tools should be a basic skill required of teachers before they are even employed. Yet, some challenges identified were the lack of this skill among most of the teachers. Most of them had no knowledge of how to connect their laptops to the internet. As a result, the Government of Ghana, in partnership with various teacher institutions like the GES and the NTC, brings out strategies to close this skill gap. Some of these strategies include:

• Provision of laptops to teachers across the country
• Licensing and registering of teachers
• Keeping an up-to-date database of teachers
• Developing and periodically reviewing professional standards and code of ethics.
• Conducting teacher Licensure Examination
• Provision of a framework for the Continuous Professional Development of teachers

The Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana (IIPGH) believes that ICT is a skill every teacher must have, which is why this curriculum was developed and will be administered across all regions in the country. If we will revolutionize the ICT ecosystem in Ghana, introducing children to Coding will not be enough, as these children spend most of their time in the hands of these teachers and are likely to be more influenced by them. The Institute calls on private individuals, organizations, and various government agencies to support it in this transformative agenda.

Author: Deborah Ofori-Dartey – Digital Skills Training Supervisor, Institute of ICT Professionals, Ghana (IIPGH)

For comments, contact: deborah.dartey@iipgh.org or Mobile: +233242912027

Source: IIPGH

The Five Different Types of Website Hosting Explained

If you are looking for a hosting provider, you'll quickly discover there are different types of hosting with different prices, features, and technical specifications. In this article, we will discuss the most popular types of hosting and help you to decide which is suitable for your website.

If you’re looking to make a WordPress website, you’re going to need website hosting.

Once you start researching your options, you’ll quickly discover that there are different types of hosting, each with different prices, performance, features, and technical complexities.

If you want to make the right decision for your website, it’s important to know what each hosting type is, along with its associated pros and cons.

That’s what this post is for. We’ll start with a general explanation of what website hosting is. Then, we’ll break down the most popular types of hosting and help you understand which one is right for your website.

What Is Website Hosting?

Website hosting is the hardware that powers your website and makes it available to visitors around the world. 

In other words, it’s where you store your website’s files and content and it’s also what serves those files to visitors when they access your site (by typing in your site’s domain name).

Every single website has some type of web hosting behind it, whether it’s a big website like YouTube or your friend’s knitting blog.

When you purchase web hosting, you’re essentially renting space on a computer. This could be part of a computer that you share with other people, an entire computer, or even space on a network of computers (AKA “the cloud”).

Once you have your website hosting, you can start putting it to use.

Just like you can install the software (e.g. apps) on your personal computer, you can also install software on your web hosting.

For example, if you want to make a WordPress website, you would first need web hosting (the hardware). Then, you can install WordPress (the software) on your web hosting. And voila — you have the basic foundations of a website that’s accessible to people anywhere in the world. All you need to do is add a tool like Elementor and you’re ready to start designing.

Different websites will have different hosting needs when it comes to the resources that are needed to power the website.

A high-traffic, high-resource website will need hosting with a lot of power to handle the workload, while a low-traffic site will be fine with less power.

In general, more powerful hosting will cost more money. You wouldn’t expect a cheap $300 laptop to perform as well as a $10,000 top-of-the-line computer, and it’s the same for web hosting.

The Five Main Types of Web Hosting

Now that you know what web hosting is, let’s go through the five main types of website hosting.

All of these hosting types are fully capable of powering WordPress sites. However, some may be more suited to your WordPress site’s unique situation than others.

1. Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is where many people start their hosting journey because it’s one of the most affordable ways to host a website.

With shared hosting, your site/account will share resources with other accounts and websites on the hosting server — hence the name.

By sharing resources like this, hosting providers are able to keep their costs down and offer rock-bottom prices.

That’s really the only benefit of shared hosting — it’s cheap. Shared hosts also typically advertise high-resource limits such as “unlimited websites”, “unlimited storage”, and/or “unlimited bandwidth”.

Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as truly “unlimited” hosting and every shared host will still apply a “fair use” policy. But still, shared hosting can be a very affordable way to host multiple websites because of this.

While the low prices of shared hosting are attractive, there can be some very real downsides when it comes to performance, reliability, and security. For example, if the other accounts that you’re sharing resources with are consuming a lot of resources, that could have a negative effect on your site’s performance because there aren’t enough resources to go around.

For this reason, many people move beyond shared hosting once their websites start growing, as other types of hosting can offer major upgrades in key areas like performance and reliability.

2. Cloud Hosting

With cloud hosting, your website gets its own dedicated resources on a huge network of computers called “the cloud”.

That’s one of the key differences between cloud hosting and shared hosting — instead of sharing resources, you get resources that are 100% dedicated to your site. This generally leads to improved performance because you don’t have to worry about someone else’s websites affecting your site.

Cloud hosting also offers excellent reliability because there’s a network of computers powering everything, rather than a single point of failure.

It’s also easy to upgrade or downgrade your hosting resources because all the hosting provider needs to do is allocate your account more (or fewer) resources on the network.

Because of this, cloud hosting is one of the fastest-growing types of hosting. For example, you might’ve heard names such as Google Cloud Platform, AWS (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft Azure, DigitalOcean, etc. Those are all examples of cloud hosting providers.

Within cloud hosting (and many other types of hosting), you can further break the hosting down into two categories:

• Managed – the hosting provider will configure and maintain the basic server details for you
• Unmanaged – you’ll be responsible for configuring and maintaining your server

All things equal, unmanaged hosting will cost less than managed hosting because the host is offering extra services with the managed option (and those extra services cost more money).

In general, non-technical users will almost always want a managed solution. However, developers might prefer unmanaged hosting for added flexibility and/or cost savings.

3. VPS Hosting

VPS Hosting is a lot like cloud hosting. The main difference is that your site gets its dedicated resources from a single physical server, rather than “the cloud”. While you don’t get the whole server to yourself, the resources that are allocated to your site are 100% your own (unlike shared hosting).

While traditional VPS hosting used to be quite popular, it’s kind of taken a back seat now that cloud hosting has grown.

Most people will be better off with the cloud hosting approach because it offers more flexible scalability. That is, it’s easier to add more resources to your server if needed (or reduce resources).

Despite that, you still will see a good number of hosting providers advertising VPS hosting, so it’s worth knowing about this type of hosting. 

4. Managed WordPress Hosting

Managed WordPress hosting is a special type of hosting that’s unique to the WordPress space.

You can host a WordPress site on all the other hosting methods, so this is definitely not the only way to host a WordPress site. However, unlike the other hosting types, managed WordPress hosting can only host WordPress sites, which can be limiting in some situations. For example, you couldn’t install your own self-hosted analytics tool (e.g. Matomo) to go along with your WordPress site.

It can use different types of hosting environments such as shared hosting, cloud hosting, and so on. In this way, managed WordPress hosting also isn’t entirely separate from the other types of hosting.

The key thing that differentiates it from “regular” hosting is a suite of concierge services that are added specifically for WordPress sites.

Typically, this includes the following types of services

• Automatic daily backups, with the option to manually back up your site if needed
• WordPress staging sites
• Automatic WordPress updates
• WordPress-specific performance optimizations, such as page caching and maybe a content delivery network (CDN)
• WordPress-specific security rules
• Expert WordPress support

The main benefit of managed WordPress hosting is convenience. You’re getting more than just web hosting, and those other services can save you time when it comes to maintaining your site.

The main downside, however, is the price. Assuming you’re talking about plans with identical resources, managed WordPress hosting will always be more expensive because you need to pay for those extra services somehow.

This means that managed WordPress hosting can be a good option for people who are willing to pay a bit of a premium for convenience and extra features.

5. Colocation Hosting

Colocation hosting is an advanced type of hosting that’s really only used by large businesses.

With colocation hosting, you physically own the hosting hardware. That is, you’ll actually purchase the hosting servers that you want to use. However, you rent space in another company’s data center to have that company power and maintain that hardware for you.

Basically, you get to keep using your own infrastructure but you eliminate the need to have your own physical space for that infrastructure (along with all of the associated costs such as electricity and air conditioning).

Again, this is not something a WordPress user will ever need, but it is a type of hosting that you might see, so it’s helpful to know this term.

Do you still have any questions about the different types of hosting and which one is right for your website(s)? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Elemento

Ten (10) proven ways to grow your e-mail marketing list in 2023

 

A computer engineer named Ray Tomlinson sent the very first email in 1971. The message he sent was just a string of numbers and letters that did not make any sense, but it was the beginning of a new era of communication. The exact message was entirely forgotten, but experts say, most likely the first message was QWERTYIOP or something similar. Tomlinson was also the person who introduced the usage of the “@” symbol in email addresses.

In 1978, a marketing manager at Digital Equipment Corp named Gary Thuerk used this new method of direct communication to send out the first commercial email to let people know about a new product. The rest is history.

Now, here we are in 2022. We have Social Media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and many more. We also have instant messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp.

Why do we still need email marketing?

The reason is simple: for over 10 years in a row, email marketing generates the highest return on investment (ROI) for marketers and companies. And this ROI is mind-blowing. According to Direct Marketing Association (DMA), for every $1 marker spent on email, the average ROI is $38. And if the returns do not scare you, the growth will.

And that growth is that, by 2025, the global email users are expected to reach 4.6 billion. 

This makes it a must for every company or institution to grow its mailing list. Below are ten (10) proven ways to do that.

• Import existing customers: assuming you have existing data, format it as first name, last name, email, mobile, etc. If you have a column for “Name” in the data, make sure you split that into first name and last name. It looks friendly and more approaching to address someone as Hi Dr. Bawumia, instead of Hi Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. But make sure you have their permission before importing it into your email marketing platform. Someone giving you his/her email when they buy something from your online portal does not mean you automatically may send them marketing emails. Seek that permission explicitly.
• Catchy subject line: Make sure your title or subject line is catchy, and the content is interesting. This is important because 35% of people open emails based on the title. If the title of your email is not convincing enough, 35% of the subscribers will not open it at all. Not just that, 69% of people will also mark your email as “Spam” based on the title. They will not even read the content. Once they do not find the title interesting, they will mark it as spam, or if you are lucky, they will delete it. But, either way, is not good for you. Deleting it will reduce your engagement rate, and in effect, affect your reputation. Both Delete and Spam increase the chance of your email landing in the trash folder of other subscribers. Later, I will talk about some indicators you must get right when crafting your heading.
• Make your content sharable: Make sure your subscribers can share the content they receive in their email, and this is done by adding a Share button or social media buttons to the email. Preferably, put that at the footer of the email so that it does not distract readers. After all, they will finish reading it before deciding whether to share it. In my mailing list, for example, I have another link that points to all the previous posts/email content I have sent. This helps subscribers to have easy access to old content or references.
• Use lead magnet: A lead magnet is a valuable content you provide for free from contact details. Use a lead magnet to get the contact details of new subscribers. If it is a product you are promoting in the email, you can also provide discount or coupons, or refund for people who are not happy with the product.
• Should you use pop-ups? Well, you can try it, but to be honest with you, just as I do, many hate pop-ups when they appear on a website. I find it so destructive, and I do not think I have ever entered my email address in any pop-up. If you want to test it, you can use a platform like Popusmart to achieve that. Good luck!
• Social media call to action: Add a signup form on your Facebook page or any other social media platform that supports Signup. The link must be your newsletter form. Therefore, it is important to consider “Integration” when selecting your email marketing service provider. You must be able to integrate your email marketing campaign with other platforms. Your newsletter form must integrate well with Facebook or any other popular platform.
• Blog post: Add the subscription form or the newsletter form or the lead magnet to every blog post. This way, readers will subscribe right after reading an article. This is what I will highly recommend instead of the destructive pop-up form. Remember: you can also convert your blog posts to pdf and send them to your subscribers as attachments. And you do not need to be told you must have a subscription form, or the newsletter form somewhere in there.
• Ask a friend: During programs and networking, either online or offline, take as many emails as you can, but remember to ask their permission. Let them know you will send them valuable content occasionally.
• Call Card: Add your newsletter link to your call card or business card. This way, whoever you give your call card will have the option to visit that link and subscribe.
• Social Media post: Add the newsletter link to all relevant social media posts you make, and occasionally too, update your WhatsApp status with the link.

To conclude, regardless of how you acquired the email, you must occasionally clean your list to remove inactive ones. There are tools for that, and you can do that manually too if your list is not huge.

How to clean your email list will be an article for another day.

I hope you found this helpful. You might also find the articles on my website (OnlinePresident.org) helpful, especially those relating to How to Start Online Business in Ghana.

Author: Kaunda Ibn Ahmed (Online President) | Communication Member, IIPGH

For comments, contact author kaunda@outlook.com

Source: IIPGH

The Sherrif Security Indicator v3.22

The Sherrif Security Indicator (TSSI) is an annual online survey that is organized to commemorate National Cyber Security Awareness Month. TSSI researches the most critical security concerns of residents of Ghana. This year’s survey is the third edition of TSSI.

TSSI asks respondents to show their greatest and least security concerns from a list of security threats including disaster/epidemic, hacking, inability to meet financial obligations, mobile money fraud, payment card fraud, personal safety, security of online banking/shopping, national security, and impersonation. We should note that, because of the rampant cases of mobile money fraud, this year’s edition introduced mobile money fraud as one of the security threats.

Methodology

The survey was conducted using Google Forms, which was shared with residents of Ghana via social media and email. The form was configured to prevent respondents from completing the form more than once. Hence, respondents could not complete the forms multiple times.

The survey was conducted for 6 weeks; from 5^th September 2022 to 15^th October 2022. Out of the approximately 2000 persons targeted for this study, 390 responses were received.

The respondents were asked the following questions:

1. What is your gender?
2. What is your age range?
3. What is your highest level of education?
4. Which of the 9 security factors is of greatest concern to you?
5. Which of the 9 security factors is of least concern to you?

The results from the survey were analyzed using statistical software.

Results

This section discusses the respondents’ responses to the 5 questions. Each subsection addresses each of the answers. 

Gender

Out of the 390 respondents, the majority were males. Females made up only 25%, as shown in figure 1.

Fig. 1: Gender of reapodents

Age

Most of the respondents were between ages 26-35, whilst those above 55 years made up only 2%. None of the respondents were below 18 years. Figure 2 provides the detailed age distribution.

Fig. 2: Age range of respodents

Educational level

Most of the respondents (92%) had tertiary education. Figure 3 provides the detailed educational qualifications of the respondents.

Fig. 3: Educational Level of respondents

Greatest security threat

Cumulatively (i.e., irrespective of the demographics), most of the respondents ranked personal safety as their greatest concern among the 9 security threats, followed closely by their inability to meet their financial obligations and national security. Figure 4 provides detailed responses.

Fig. 4: Greatest Security threats to respondents

In segregating the response by gender, most of the males ranked their inability to meet financial obligations as their greatest security concern, followed closely by national security and personal safety. The greatest security concern for the females was their personal safety, followed by their inability to meet financial obligations, and identity theft.

Also, the greatest security concern of most of the respondents between the ages of 18-25 was personal safety, followed by their inability to meet financial obligations. Those between the ages of 26-35 indicated their inability to meet financial obligations as their greatest security concern, followed by national security. The ages 36-45 and 46-55 showed personal safety as their greatest security concern, followed by national security. Those above 55 years indicated hacking as their greatest security concern, followed by identity theft and personal safety (same position).

Least security concern

Cumulatively, most of the respondents ranked mobile money fraud as their least security concern, followed by their inability to meet financial obligations, and disaster/epidemic.

Fig. 5: Least Security Threat to respondents

Most of the males ranked mobile money fraud as their least security concern, followed by their inability to meet financial obligations, and disaster/epidemic. The females ranked their inability to meet financial obligations as their least security concern, followed by disaster/epidemic, identity theft, and mobile money fraud (in the same position).

Most of the respondents in all age ranges ranked mobile money fraud as their least security concern, followed by their inability to meet financial obligations.

Analysis

Despite the numerous analysis that could be drawn from the findings, this article focuses on a few of interest.

The findings indicate that, out of the 9 security threats, the respondents’ personal safety was their greatest security concern. The gender and age of the respondents influenced their security concerns. Males were most concerned about their inability to meet financial obligations, whilst females were most concerned about their personal safety. Those above 55 years had different security concerns than their counterparts. Their greatest concern was hacking into their systems/accounts.

Mobile money fraud was of the least concern to the respondents. Gender also influenced the respondents' least security concerns. Males were least concerned about mobile money fraud, whilst females were least concerned about their inability to meet financial obligations. Age had no influence on the least security concerns of the respondents. Most of the respondents in all age ranges ranked mobile money fraud as their least security concern.

It is also clear from the findings that information security-related concerns were not the top concerns of the respondents. Information security-related threats were ranked somewhat in the median, both between the greatest and least security concerns.

Comparing the findings of the greatest security concern with the least security concern clearly shows the fact that personal safety is indeed paramount to the respondents. It is, however, intriguing to note that the second greatest security concern (inability to meet financial obligations) also turns out to be the second least security concern.

Constraints

Due to the medium used to administer the survey, the views of individuals without access to smartphones, computers, and the internet could not be solicited.

Although the number of responses received this year was 27% more than last year, the responses were not encouraging, compared to the targeted respondents in 2000.

Conclusion

The top three greatest security concerns for this year’s survey were the same as for the previous edition. The only difference is personal safety moved from the second position in the previous survey to the top position this year.

Although information security-related threats did not show in the top three greatest security concerns, they were also not considered in the top three of the least security concerns, as was witnessed in last year’s survey. It can therefore be deduced that; the respondents are appreciating the grave impacts of information security-related threats.

We ought to take cognizant of the fact that information security-related threats can degenerate into other security threats, as we witnessed in the case of the Electricity Company of Ghana hack, in September this year.

To overcome the constraints to improve this survey; logistical, human, and financial support would be much appreciated from individuals and organizations.

We are extremely grateful to all those who supported this year’s survey, especially our respondents. We hope to receive your support in the subsequent editions of TSSI.

Author: SHERRIF ISSAH (Information Security Governance, Risk and Compliance Professional, and Director of Communications, IIPGH)

For comments, contact author mysherrif@gmail.com | +233243835912

Source: iipgh.org