In our last episode of OTE, we had the pleasure of speaking with Fred Yeboah from the Kofi Annan Institute in Ghana.  Mark had met Fred at a 2 week OSS " train the trainer" seminar, which was focused on increasing in-country capacity around FLOSS & ICT.  Fred gave us good insight regarding how his department is leveraging open source, by offering courses in server administration, and programming.
One of the most interesting programs is i2CAP ( I too can programme), which focuses on Ruby www.ruby-lang.org/en/  and C++  .  There are regional competitions for secondary students to enter with opportunities to move to national and international contests for programming. 
The strategies Fred employs will empower people reach their potential.  One such strategy is to propose a dual boot system at each of the district ICT centers, which will give students exposure to the Linux operating system and its potential. Fred's first exposure to OSS was while he was in Germany working on his degree and now he works to promote awareness.
We also had a bit of discussion around the value that OSS can bring to business, and how to present this when many people focus on the 'free' perspective of open source. 
The Kofi Annan will be hosting an event for Software Freedom Day, along with the Linux User Group in Accra.
www.aiti-kace.com.gh/