President John Dramani Mahama on Saturday inaugurated an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) centre that has been renamed after the late Defence Minister, Dr Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, who died in a military helicopter crash in August 2025.
The ceremony brought together government officials, traditional leaders, family members of the deceased, and community residents for the formal unveiling of the facility and the dedication of a commemorative bust in his memory.
Dr Omane Boamah, a physician, politician, and long-serving member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), died on August 6, 2025, when a Ghana Armed Forces Z-9 helicopter crashed near Adansi Akrofuom in the Ashanti Region. He was travelling to Obuasi for an anti-illegal mining operation when the aircraft went down, killing all eight people on board. He had served as Defence Minister for seven months under President Mahama’s second term.
The renaming of the centre reflects the government’s wider effort to honour Dr Omane Boamah’s legacy in public service and technology. Before his final appointment, he served as Minister for Communications between 2013 and 2017, during which he championed child online protection, oversaw the rollout of Ghana’s 4G network, and pushed for broader digital access across communities. He also chaired the Better Ghana ICT Project, which distributed approximately 100,000 laptop computers to students and schools nationwide.
Saturday’s inauguration follows a series of posthumous tributes. In January 2026, the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, cut the sod for a new ICT and science laboratory at Pope John Senior High School and Seminary in Koforidua, also named in Dr Omane Boamah’s honour. That facility, funded through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), was tied to a pledge Dr Omane Boamah had made to the school before his death.
The renaming of the ICT and AI centre comes at a significant moment for Ghana’s digital agenda. Cabinet approved a $250 million investment to establish a national AI compute centre in late March 2026, and Ghana’s National AI Strategy is set to be officially launched by President Mahama on April 24, 2026.
