The country of Mauritius recently announced plans to partner up with Ghana with a number of projects in the country. One of the projects include the construction of a cyber city.
Wait? A Cyber City? Haven’t we seen that story before? (See: Hope City)
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade for Mauritius, Mr Vishnu Seetanah Lutchmeenaraidoo made the announcement on a visit to Ghana. The city is expected to be at cited at Dawa in the Greater Accra region with approval from the new government.
Reminiscent of the Hope City project which was proposed by the former government, the proposed city will be technology based one and innovation towers, conference centres, an ICT plaza and serviced plots for regional headquarters for ICT companies.
Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice?
This is not to say that this project can’t be done but governments are fond of announcing big plans for projects like this and in the end, they don’t come to fruition.
A cyber city which will allow for innovation and have accommodation for IT companies sounds like a great prospect. It could lure big IT companies like Google or even Microsoft to set up in the Accra and it could help create jobs.
But like Hope City, we were all excited in the beginning. Eventually the hype died down and the city never broke ground.
Similar to the Silicon Accra project, we’re just have to wait and see what happens. I hope it succeeds.
But after the Hope City affair, I’m not very bullish on this.
