Clement Adu Twum

Name: Clement Adu Twum
Profession: IT Specialist
Country of origin: Ghana
Living in the Netherlands since: 1993

Imagine a hospital without a properly functioning IT system: with stacks of paper and medical information getting lost. Fortunately, the IT infrastructure of many hospitals in Ghana is in order and patients can trust that their data is properly stored. Thanks to Clement Adu Twum.

“I came to the Netherlands when I was 15 and I work as an IT consultant in education. IOM enabled me to return to Ghana for short periods, first to advise the Tamale Teaching Hospital on how to improve their IT, then another hospital and that started a snowball effect.”

Tamale Teaching Hospital, a large teaching hospital in Northern Ghana, used to incur high costs. Old IT infrastructure and poor internet access caused many problems. This delayed medical treatment and put patients at risk.

Clement’s commitment convinced a Dutch ROC to donate second-hand, in good condition IT equipment to Tamale. Clement then trained the employees, as part of the CD4D project, to work with the software. He also lobbied with a multinational telecom company in Ghana for better access to the internet. As a result, this company-sponsored the hospital with a fibre optic connection. This way Clement also made an important contribution to corporate social responsibility.

Tamale Teaching Hospital is now a nationally recognized educational institution for young IT professionals. The same model is now used in other hospitals in Ghana. Clement remains humble: “My only interest is that I want to help the country where I was born. Fortunately, every step I took had an impact. ”

photography by Kristie Wernink