The Director-General for the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (GI-KACE), Dr. Collins Yeboah-Afari, has heaped praises on the Minister for Communications and Digitalisation (MoCD), Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful for setting up a trust for the flagship Girls in ICT program.
Speaking at the sidelines of the Greater Accra Region’s Girls in ICT Day climax this year, Dr. Collins Yeboah-Afari indicated that GI-KACE has and will always play an integral role in the Girls in ICT initiative to help create a future generation of women who will be well equipped with Digital skills and are ready to take on the world.
He further indicated that, through the Girls in ICT program, the Minister has in her own way contributed greatly to the government’s digitalisation agenda by instituting an annual boot camp that focuses on building the capacity of girls around the country, while grooming them to become the next generation of female innovators and entrepreneurs.
According to him, since the inception of the Girls in ICT program, GI-KACE has been at the beck and call of the program to assist with the training of the teachers and students.
“Since the Girls in ICT program started, GI-KACE has always played its part by assigning some of our best facilitators, especially female facilitators, to help train these wonderful girls in the various fields of ICT,” he stated.
Dr. Yeboah-Afari was optimistic that the Ghana Girls in ICT Trust, which the Minister has launched, will help promote girls’ access to Digital Skills while broadening the goals of quality education, gender equality, and reduced inequalities as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Ghana Girls in ICT Trust, according to the Minister, is a non-profit organization based on experiences from 12 years of implementing the Girls in ICT Day program and will develop training and support networks in all 16 regions, training over 9,000 young girls annually.
He stated that the trust which focuses on: Education and Training, Scholarships and Funding, Advocacy and Awareness, Partnerships and Collaboration will significantly impact the lives of many young women in Ghana, opening up new career pathways and contributing to the country’s technological advancement.
“At GI-KACE, our doors will always be open to train you in several fields of ICT like Cybersecurity, Data Analytic, and Artificial Intelligence among others, should you want to take an advanced course in ICT in the future,” he added.