The Centre for Technology Empowerment and Development (CTED) has embarked on a variety of projects to help farmers and the people of Kumawu in Ashanti region.

The projects which have been spearheaded by Professor Yaw Nyarko, a New York University professor of economics and a native of Kumawu, seek to among others; improve the quality of life of the people of the area while opening it to the outside world.

The projects which commenced about five years ago have seen the construction of a Kumawu Palace Museum, the establishment of a land administration secretariat, the Kumawuman Educational Fund, Kumawuman Development and Investment Trust and the CETD, which serves as a centre for research and training.

At an event dubbed, ‘CTED Forum,’ to outdoor the projects, Paramount Chief of Kumawu, Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua expressed his joy for the projects and stated that he was particularly concerned about raising the standard of education in the area.

According to him, quality education plays a critical role in the development of any community and that’s why the setting up of the educational fund was important and welcoming.

The Fund awarded seven brilliant but needy SHS students scholarship with each taking GHC2000. The event brought together community leaders and members, students, donor partners and other invited guests.

The other projects like the Kumawuman Development Investment Trust were created to provide financial planning and income-generating opportunities to the community.

Now in its second year of operation, the Kumawuman Palace Museum, founded by CTED and the Traditional Council, showcased an exhibition also at the forum featuring traditional artifacts contributed by community members, documentary films, a chieftaincy administration guide, and cultural heritage programs.

The forum also witnessed the introduction of a mobile app that has been developed to help smallholder farmers in the area to revolutionize the way they trade and open new markets.

The presentation highlighted the deployment of mobile apps, android phones and drone technologies by the centre in partnership with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to help farmers demarcate and map their farms and also helping to find easy and quick markets for their produce.

Professor Yaw Nyarko who is also Director of the Centre said the development of these technologies is to ensure that some complications that farmers are usually confronted with are curtailed.

“The foremost way in which economic development can be enhanced is through technology. By utilizing mobile apps, sophisticated image recognition processing, and big data, CTED can gain insights into market trends, agricultural yields, the flow of goods, and much more.

This data has the potential to inform community leaders and members of long-term planning and maximum socio-economic impact,’’ he stated.

On his part Ghana Country Director of International Growth Centre, a supporting donor of the project, Dr. Nii Sowa said his outfit was impressed with the projects and assured the stakeholders of their continued assistance towards the project.

CTED is a research center at New York University (NYU) that focuses on the development of innovative and cutting-edge technologies that can significantly impact economic development with a specific focus on problems faced in under-developed areas around the world.

CTED is headquartered in Abu Dhabi with branches in New York, Accra, and Kumawu in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.