Some 570 girls from deprived Junior and Senior High Schools in the Oti region are undergoing skills training in ICT to broaden their scope in the subject area.

The package is being rolled out by the Ministry of Communication through the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC).

The participants, who excel, would be rewarded with a device, certificate and their institutions benefit from the establishment of an ultra-modern ICT resource centre and laboratory.

The team visited five ICT District Centres in Oti Region, where teachers involved in the programme are being equipped to become train-the-trainees models in ICT.

Mr Abraham Kofi Asante, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GIFEC, in a speech on behalf of the Mrs Ursula Owusu Ekuful, the Minister of Communications, said, 'Girls in ICT' is a programme organised to train and help girls acquire computer skills.

He said the government was building a digitised economy championed by ICT and had prioritised training for JHSs students to be literate in the subject area.

The Chief Executive Officer said the Ministry for Communication would establish ICT centres in the Oti Regional Capital to serve as a resource centre to build capacities.

He encouraged the students to demonstrate a passion to excel in ICT, which is now the driver for undertaking tasks in the global space.

He said as part of the implementation of Girls in ICT in line with the International Telecom Union strategy some 680 JHSs and 380 SHSs ICT laboratories had been established.

Mr Asante said about 141 community laboratories were activated with 242 centres at various stages of completion compared to 28 that were operational at the end of 2016.

He said the girls would be introduced to coding and other tools to sharpen their intelligence to becoming problem solvers.
He said Dambai is benefiting from the community ICT Centre as part of the President's digitisation programme.

The training centres the team visited are Kyabobo Girls Junior High School laboratory in the Nkwanta South Municipal, Nkwanta South Municipal ICT laboratory, Nkwanta South SHS Technical laboratory and Oti SHS Technical laboratory in the Krachi East Municipal.
Students under the ICT training programme expressed gratitude to the Ministry for Communication and GIFEC.