Ghana’s Digital Transformation Agenda Makes Impact

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has expressed its willingness to support Ghana to establish two hundred and forty-one (241) Digital Transformation Centers across the country.

The project with support from the Norwegian Government which is in collaboration with Cisco and the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) is expected to scale up and strengthen digital skills training for underserved communities in Ghana.

The objective of the project among others is to close the digital skills gap between rural and urban communities in the country estimated to train more than 14,000 beneficiaries with basic digital skills in expanding their businesses.

This is against the backdrop that investing in the lives of several community members to benefit from the Digital Transformation Agenda is becoming the mainstay for addressing some basic but critical needs of communities.

It enables them to access general/specialized ICT training, educational scholarships and infrastructure. These supports have helped create entrepreneurs and jobs among others, which has improved the livelihood of the beneficiaries.

However, speaking at a virtual ceremony to sign the agreement for the project, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, Minister for Communications hinted that the new partnership will help Ghana to accelerate the building of an inclusive digital society, to ensure that lack of knowledge and skills is not a barrier to participation in the digital economy, and to contribute to the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

“Since 2017, The Ministry of Communications, through the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), has provided telecommunications connectivity to over 2,000 communities as part of the flagship Rural Telephony Project, enhancing the socio-economic lives of over 1,200,000 citizens in rural Ghana. We are in the process of expanding access to an additional 2016 communities to connect some 3 million people thereby providing 95% of our population with voice and data connectivity within the next 18 months.

“That is some of the use we are putting our universal access fund to and have secured a credit facility to finance this project upfront. Ghana has the second highest data penetration rate and the fastest growing mobile money market in Sub-Saharan Africa according to Oxford Business Group. It is therefore imperative that we scale up efforts to ensure that these developments are available in, within the reach of and experienced by everybody living in any part of the country if indeed, we are to leave no one behind as we desire” Ursula said.

She added, “Despite these efforts to facilitate the expansion of ICT to rural areas, there is still a wide digital skill gap between citizens in the urban and rural areas. We are therefore delighted that the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has included Ghana in the Digital Transformation Centres (DTC) programme, which will facilitate the development of digital skills for citizens mainly at the basic and intermediate level. The initiative is part of a broader goal of building an inclusive digital society where lack of digital skills will not be a barrier to participation in the digital economy.

“We are especially grateful to the Norwegian government for their support for this programme, and to Cisco for the provision of content for the training. Gvv providing all our citizenry with ICT skills is fundamental for socio-economic development, these skills will enable the beneficiaries to learn how to use ICT as both a tool and facilitator of progress and financial independence. This is the fundamental goal of our President. Without the requisite digital skills, the bulk of our population will be unable to enjoy the benefits of the many digital interventions undertaken by this government to formalise the economy, promote greater efficiency, and transparency and reduce corruption.”

High Marks

Houlin Zhao, the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union on the day said various efforts engineered by Ghana’s Minister of Communication towards the education of Information Communication of Technology (ICT) can in normal terms be described as the best in the world.

According to him, the previous low empathy towards ICT education has seen a significant change with the many initiatives implemented by the Ghana government led by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

“I’m happy to be part of this great initiative happening today between the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Ghana Government to boost digital skills across the country. Ghana over the past few years has seen massive improvement with regards to ICT. Madam Ursula Owusu has led the country towards a great future. ICT is an aspect of our daily lives where no one should to be left behind” he said.

The virtual event was attended by Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, His Excellency, Aksel Jakobsen, State Secretary of International Development for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, and Ms. Wendy Mars, President of Cisco’s Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Russia region among other world leaders.

Beneficiaries

Meanwhile, there are already some women and youth groups benefiting from the project from the Dodowa and Assin Fosu ICT Community Centres.

Some of the beneficiaries who were at the event expressed their hope for more ICT education and said they were happy with the initiative.

“The already Girls-In-ICT has helped to shape me, it has brought happiness to my family. I have something doing which provides me with good amount of money currently based on the initiative. It is my hope that, the continuous transformation agenda would provide better amenities for my other colleagues in aim to as well better their lives like mine” one of the beneficiaries said.