The ugliness is the exploitation of the workers in Ghana. The industry is
different, the story is the same.
At 04:28 PM 4/14/03 -0500, you wrote:
>It is possible that I could be missing something here, but there is
>something in this picture that looks UGLY. I have to look at it again;
>maybe the picture will become clearer.
>
> >>> [log in to unmask] 04/14/03 11:09AM >>>
>NEW HAVEN SOFTWARE COMPANY'S WORKERS LIVE IN GHANA
>
>Maria Garriga, Register Staff
>April 13, 2003
>http://www.newhavenregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7697177&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=7573&rfi=6
>
>
>A leather rug woven from many pieces hangs on the wall of a
>software-development company in New Haven.
>It's one of the few signs that the company's executives come from Ghana.
>
>Welcome to AQ Solutions, a 4-year-old marriage of African ingenuity and
>American capital.
>
>Most of the company's employees work out of Accra, the capital of Ghana,
>developing computer software for companies in the United States.
>
>More and more U.S. companies are outsourcing information-technology work
>to Third World countries with highly educated workforces and low wage rates.
>
>"Companies can't always hire $100-an-hour workers. This is part of the
>solution," said company founder and President Awo Quaison-Sackey.
>
>Quaison-Sackey, the daughter of Ghana's ambassador to the United Nations
>in the 1960s, attended elementary school in New Rochelle, N.Y. She
>returned to the United States in 1975 as a graduate student and became a
>U.S. citizen in 1991.
>
>AQ Solutions employs half a dozen people in Connecticut who market the
>company's out-sourcing services to potential U.S. clients. The company's
>customers include General Electric and Northeast Utilities.
>
>"We picked it up to increase our investment in minority (owned) firms and
>to get a better understanding of offshore software development," said
>Joseph Aivano, director of application development at Northeast Utilities
>in Berlin, Conn. "AQ Solutions was more of a pilot test. The test was
>successful."
>
>Aivano said NU is now considering outsourcing jobs to India, China and
>Ireland, as well.
>
>Quaison-Sackey said the average wage in Ghana is $1.25 an hour, or $200 a
>month, for information technology workers.
>
>"We pay them almost double the prevailing wage," she said, an average
>$2.50 a hour, or $400 a month.
>
>That's a princely sum in Ghana, where the minimum wage is 76 cents a day.
>
>"To put that in perspective, the price of a gallon of gasoline is $2.33,"
>she said.
>
>Quaison-Sackey started AQ Solutions because she wanted to help bring jobs
>to her native Ghana.
>
>"In Ghana, people are poor," said Quaison-Sackey.
>
>Since the company's mission fits with the goals of the Ghanaian
>government, the government has agreed to loosen certain restrictions on
>foreign investment and technologies to allow companies such as AQ
>Solutions to operate. The government also kicked in some tax breaks.
>
>"Information technology is the fastest-growing industry (in Ghana)," said
>Edward Ansa, a team leader at AQ Solutions.
>
>"The government is trying to move the focus from traditional exports like
>cocoa, coffee and gold."
>
>For AQ Solutions' 30 programmers in Ghana, the jobs are a dream come true,
>Quaison-Sackey said. She said she hopes to build a workforce 500 strong in
>Ghana by 2005.
>
>"If India can do it, so can we," she said.
>
>India has a decade-long track record in information-technology outsourcing.
>
>Quaison-Sackey said she also plans to pitch her company as a subcontractor
>to larger Indian companies handling software development for American
>companies.
>
>Quaison-Sackey said some of the challenges of overseas outsourcing include
>long distances, major time differences and a lack of personal contact.
>
>She said she flies her Ghanaian managers to the United States to meet
>clients and lets clients phone the programmers in Ghana directly.
>
>"There are no barriers," she beamed.
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Maria Garriga can be reached at [log in to unmask] or 789-5685.
>
>İNew Haven Register 2003
>
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