The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) has trained 14,000 youth in information and communications technology (ICT) between 2020 and first quarter of 2023.
The trainees have been equipped with skills in cyber security, website development, brand building on social media and digital entrepreneurship.
GIFEC, under the auspices of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, facilitated the training in collaboration with the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and Somuah Information Systems (SISCO).
The three-year programme which began in 2020 will end in the last quarter of 2023. It is aimed at equipping 17,200 employed and unemployed graduates, skilled and unskilled youth in the area of digitalisation.
Three hundred trainees graduated in Ho on Friday 28 April.
Speaking at a ceremony to mark the graduation, the national project officer at ITU, Alex Kojo Boahoma, said out of the 17,200 target beneficiaries, over 14,000 have been trained, with females representing 70% of the beneficiaries.
The recent graduation marked the tenth batch since the beginning of the programme in 2020.
A total of 4,000 trainees graduated on the same day across the country at the various GIFEC centres.
The chief executive officer of GIFEC, Prince Ofori Sefah, said the training is under GIFEC’s ICT capacity building programme and there are plans to train more beneficiaries.
He stated that programme is aimed at bridging the digital divide with priority to girls and women in the development of the country’s digitalisation agenda.
The member of parliament for the Agona West Constituency in the Central Region, Cynthia Mamle Morrison, advised the beneficiaries to make a positive impact in society with the skills they acquired.
She bemoaned how some young people misuse social media and urged the beneficiaries to “portray the positive.”
The Dufia of Ho Ahoe, Togbe Kasa III, encouraged the beneficiaries to live exemplary lives in their various communities. He urged them to take advantage of technology and entrepreneurship in order to build successful enterprises.
The beneficiaries were given digital devices including smartphones, tablets and accessories.
