Accra  – ESPNSoccernet.com -- one of the world’s leading soccer websites --  today announced an agreement with mobile services provider, Rancard  Solutions, to deliver international soccer scores and news to mobile subscribers in Africa using the Rancardmobility.com mobile service delivery platform.

The ESPNSoccernet SMS service will enable mobile subscribers in Africa follow their favorite international football teams during the world cup as well as comment on the news with other fans on a variety of social media including FaceBook and Twitter. The service is device agnostic and will enable participation from users on all mobile devices and will be initially available to subscribers on Glo in Nigeria and Vodafone in Ghana.

The Rancardmobility.com  platform converts premium web content from ESPNSoccernet into a fast, user-friendly, social mobile service accessible  on any mobile device via SMS and enables mobile users to access and share ESPN content whilst on the go.

"ESPN is the worldwide leader in sports and Rancard is pleased to work with ESPNSoccernet  to extend the reach of their quality content to mobile subscribers in Ghana and Nigeria." - Ehizogie Binitie, Director Products & Marketing  

The service will initially be available in on Glo in Nigeria and Vodafone in Ghana and users can access the service by sending “ESPN” to codes 120 on Vodafone and 32929 on Glo. 


About ESPNSoccernet.com
ESPNSoccernet.com is one of the world’s leading soccer Web sites, reaching millions of fans around the globe each month.  It is an integral part ofESPN’s global digital media assets that include brands such as ESPN.com, ESPNSoccernet, ESPNCricinfo, ESPNScrum, ESPNF1.com, ESPNDeportes.com, ESPN3, ESPN Player and many others.  

ESPN is the leading global provider of sports on digital media platforms – including the Internet, broadband, mobile and emerging media platforms.  Collectively, ESPN digital media sites and services reach tens of millions of sports fans each month around the world, who spend billions of minutes with ESPN content.     

About Rancardmobility.com
Rancardmobility.com connects media, application, content and service providers to mobile networks in Africa and the Middle East via a highly reliable and scalable multi-channel, multi-protocol message delivery platform. Rancardmobility.com also includes a customizable application layer for mobile service and multimedia content management.

Contact Espnsoccernet:
Paul Melvin, ESPN        
paul.melvin@espn.com
+44 208 222 2104

The Internet is known to be the most pervasive and ubiquitous platform for communication of all forms, lending itself significantly to commerce, education, social networking, government, etc..

Citi 97.3 FM and Google Ghana hosted the Internet Bandwidth Conference to highlight Ghana's need to give more focus to the development of the local Internet industry, at which Rancard's Managing Director- Kofi Dadzie gave a presentation on how the Internet can enable business in Ghana.

Other presenters included Mawuli Tse- Director of International Sales for Africa at iBasis (also a board member of Rancard), Philip Sowah- MD of Zain Ghana and Dorothy Gordon of the Kofi Annan ICT Center of Excellence.

The occasion was graced by the honorable minister for communications of the Republic of Ghana- Haruna Iddrissu and other industry heavyweights including the Director for Regulation of the National Communications Authority- Joshua Peprah.

External Links: 

- http://www.citifmonline.com/site/business/news/view/5502/3

- http://www.citifmonline.com/site/business/news/view/5506/3

The Board, Management and Staff of Rancard Solutions Ltd would like to congratulate Dr. Patrick Awuah on winning the prestigious John P. McNulty Awards for 2009 and the Microsoft Alumni Foundation Integral Fellow Award.  Both awards are in recognition of his valuable contribution in service and in making a difference in his community, society and the world at large.  We are proud of his contributions towards developing and promoting ethical and entrepreneurial African Leadership.  Dr. Awuah joined Rancard’s board in May 2007 after having previously served on the advisory board. 

Dr. Patrick G. Awuah Jr. is the President and Founder of Ashesi University, a private, coeducational, liberal arts institution that begun instruction in March 2002 in Accra, Ghana.  Ashesi has a mission to educate African leaders of exceptional integrity and professional ability and nurture excellence in scholarship, leadership and citizenship.  The university college offers majors in Computer Science, Management Information Systems and Business Administration.

Prior to founding Ashesi University, Dr. Patrick Awuah worked as a Program Manager for Microsoft.  He holds bachelor degrees in engineering and economics from Swarthmore College and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.  He was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2004 by Swarthmore College in recognition of his leadership role in African higher education.

He is also a Fellow of the African Leadership Initiative which is a branch of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, a member of the United States Council on Foreign Relations, also a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy amongst others.  He is indeed an exemplary African leader and role model for the new Africa he dreams of.   “If there is anything you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now”- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

External links: 

• http://www.microsoftalumni.org/postgala.aspx - Microsoft Alumni Foundation
• http://www.mcnultyprize.org/winner2009.shtml - McNulty
• http://www.ashesi.edu.gh/ - Ashesi University