The Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, has trained more than 39,141 people in digital skills, creating jobs for about 15,000 people in the process.

The project, which is under the World Bank financed eTransform, successfully launched three strategic tech hubs - Ghana Tech Lab, Ghana Innovation Hub, and the Kumasi Business Incubator at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), in a bid to solidify its position as Africa’s leading centre for digital innovation.

In an interview, the Sector Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, said the hubs were intended to foster highly skilled digital human capital, seed innovations, including nurturing of startups and the provision of a fertile platform to develop and accelerate innovative ideas to achieve product-market fit and also address societal needs.

Significance

The minister said the tech hubs had successfully hosted various events and programmes, drawing significant participation from 39,141 individuals, made up of 18,914 males and 20,227 females.

She said the beneficiaries had been equipped with a wide array of digital skills, including robotics, business development, graphic design, social media management, accounting, artificial intelligence, mobile app development, creative writing, videography and virtual reality.

The rest are gaming, animation, photography, sound engineering, programming, 3D Printing and web development.

Job creation

The minister further said that so far, the hub had successfully created 5,799 direct jobs, with a representation of 2,756 males and 3,043 females (52.6 per cent), and over 10,000 indirect jobs.

“This initiative is part of the country’s broader effort to harness technology for socio-economic advancement, and to ensure that the nation remains at the forefront of digital innovation and economic growth in Africa,” she added.

e-Transform project

The eTransform project, a cornerstone of the Digital Ghana Agenda, is focused on creating an enabling environment for digital Ghana, namely e-government and business, focusing on policy, regulatory, and institutional capacity-building.

It also aims at promoting electronic services, support innovation centres and enhance government data management.

It further seeks support for digitisation and connectivity; launch and scale-up of priority digital services and applications in priority sectors where ICT would be utilised to improve health and education services and complete key e-applications, while providing coordination, communication, procurement, financial management and monitoring to ensure effective project implementation.