TECHNOLOGY AND AFRICAN TIME

By Mawutodzi K. Abissath

PHILOSOPHICALLY, the only thing under the sun that does not change is change itself. This is natural law. And it is in recognition of this immutable law that during the recent election campaigns in Ghana, Prof. J. E. A. Mills of the NDC and Mr J. A. Kufuor of the NPP, placed the word change at the focal point of their campaign messages.

You remember while Mr Kufuor was then prophesising “Positive Change” because he was paving his way, Prof. Mills was preaching “Progressive Change” because he was "already in motion"? These two refined souls are not only politicians but philosophers as well.

God bless them for Ghana.

Technologically, this writer can reveal that sooner than later, the hitherto infamous traditional concept of "African Time" will surely change, too. And the new technology that makes this change enviable is called TIMEWARE. Those who have acquired the machine are secretly laughing at their competitor who are yet to see the light.

In a chat with the Managing Director of TIMEWARE (GHANA LTD, Mr Sam B. Atakorah, on the 10th floor of the plush pyramid-like tower opposite the Pension House in Accra, it came to light that the Timeware  technology was developed in the mid-eighties.

It is a simple but ultra-efficient electronic time keeping machine. This is a machine that has come to replace manual timekeepers with which some unscrupulous workers condone and connive with their supervisors to cheat their employers.

With the new technology, absenteeism, holiday and annual leave monitoring, job costing, overtime calculations, in-coming and out-going movement of workers and many more time and personnel management functions are dealt with accuracy and precision. The worker only needs a special card which he or she passes through the machine within a second and every detailed information about him or her is recorded.

Records show that in the United Kingdom (UK), for instance, "over half a million people clock into work each day dawn with new Timeware. 

The nation should now move along with technology or ever remain economically stagnant. When the Timeware machine was first introduced and demonstrated to me personally, I was speechless. What fascinated me even more was that an employer who, for one reason or the other, could not physically go to his office can remain in his bedroom and connect his telephone line to his laptop computer and through the magic of the Timeware technology, can see all his workers who reported for duty for the day and at what time they actually started work and closed as well. It is amazing!

According to Mr Atakorah, his company is in the process of encouraging the manufacturers of Timeware to establish a factory in Ghana where the product could be assembled not only for the Ghanaian market but the entire African continent. If the unproductive concept of African time must change, then the Timeware technology must, cover the whole of Africa for the total development of the continent.

Technologists are of the view that Timeware is fairly a less complex technology with a minimum system requirement of Pentium 166MHZ; Window's 95198120001NT; 64MB RAM (128MBNT); SVGA monitor and pointing device.

As a layman, this writer finds Timeware an appropriate technology that can help eradicate the so called African time syndrome in Ghana.

There is the need to interview more communications experts for more information on the technology for the benefit of readers in general and employers in particular. Stay tuned!

The author works with Information Services Department (ISD) abissath@gmail.com

NB: This article was first published by the Daily Graphic on February 8, 2001.