Tertiary education calls for ingenuity and creativity in response to daily challenges in the current digital era where technological innovation is an undeniable asset.
Mr. Kenneth Frimpong, a level 400 Information Studies student of the College of Education, University of Ghana, has developed a bot on twitter named Ghana Information Hub that automatically calculates and retweets the levy one has to pay on an electronic fund transfer.
Mr. Kenneth Frimpong
Explaining how the bot works, Mr. Frimpong stated that one has to sign up or log in to a twitter account, tweet “@ghanainfohub how much e-levy do I have to pay on an amount of money” (for instance: GHC1000.00), the individual then receives the retweet “You will pay GHC15.00 on GHC1000.00”. The Twitter user receives the response in less than a minute and this service is always available (24hours a day, 7 days a week).
According to Mr. Frimpong, the idea was developed while studying Programming of Information Centre Application, a course taught by Dr. Karim Awudu who is a Lecturer at the Department of Information Studies. He stated that, he gained experience in coding using Python programming language while studying under the tutelage of Dr. Awudu. His zeal for learning to programme in Python was heightened when Dr. Awudu introduced them to practical coding, demystified computer programming and also assured the class that the course could land them a job in the technology industry.
Mr. Kenneth Frimpong with his lecturer, Dr. Karim Awudu
As part of the course, students developed applications as final projects which constituted 30% of their assessment. This among other things helped him gain practical skills and encouraged him to continuously explore and apply his skills in programming which eventually led to designing and rolling out this e-levy calculator on Twitter.
The electronic transactions levy was introduced in Ghana on 1st May, 2022, as a tax on all electronic mobile money transfers expect those excluded by law. Twenty- four (24) days later, Mr. Frimpong introduced the bot on twitter, to serve the purpose of informing people on how much e-levy they will have to pay on a transaction.
Currently, Mr. Frimpong is working on developing more features on the bot to provide up to date information on job openings, current affairs, weather conditions and prices of fuel and currencies. He hopes to design more bots on other applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media platforms. He is also looking at enhancing access to information on health-related issues as well as in the social and business field to reflect the name of the Ghana Information Hub.
Kindly follow Mr. Kenneth Frimpong using the Twitter handle @ghanainfohub for updates on the bot.