About 100 young girls from selected basic schools in the Central Region are benefiting from free Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capacity building training programme.

The five-day intensive training series, which began on Monday, October 14 and will end on Saturday, October 26, seeks to build the capacity of enthusiastic young girls with interest in studying ICT from 14 districts of the region.

The initiative put together by the Ministry of Communications is geared towards introducing girls to ICT to break the myths and the gender disparity in ICT usage.

The participants were taken through the basic regiments of computer, introduction to computer, coding, scratch, dangers of digitisation and social media threats among others.

The goal is through demonstrations, conversations and engaging in hands-on practical base experiments presented by women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, young girls will become empowered, cultivate confidence, and develop deeper understanding that everything is possible in life and in the world.

At a working tour to some selected centres on Tuesday, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekufful, the sector Minister urged young girls to develop interest in ICT to create opportunities for them in the job market

Together with officials from the ministry, the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) and some Metropolitan and Municipal and Chief Executives (MMDCES), toured Centres in Saltpond in the Mfantseman Municipality, Abobo, near Swedru in Gomoa Central and Swedru in the Agona West Municipality.

Mrs Owusu-Ekufful explained that 100 students would be selected from the region and efficiently supported through mentoring, coaching and interactions by key industry players to gain the necessary experiences for life.



The move, according to her, formed part of government's efforts to encourage girls to be more confident, especially in controlling their lives and claiming their rightful place in STEM.

They should rewrite their own stories by making their own software and creating their own cyber world to boast of being ICT educated.

She explained that real education provoked the mind and therefore the young girls should be minded about the future by writing their own problems and finding solutions to them.

"We want to use STEM to spark new interests, make real-life connections, and fight stereotypes and obstacles facing young girls and women to unearth their talents to support their livelihoods and country.

The Minister said though global proliferation of technology was good for the development of countries, it had increased the rate of cybercrime, and social vices and, stressed the need for them to flee from such ICT related vices that would eventually ruin their lives.

Mrs. Owusu-Ekufful advised the youth especially young girls to desist from posting nude videos and photos of themselves online saying, "it is a bad practice that needs to be stopped as soon as possible."

Franklina Damaris Arhinful, a student of Swedru Girls Model Junior High School, on behalf of her colleagues thanked the ministry and government for the intervention

She took the Minister and the team through coding and rallied the support of all to ensure that more girls had access to ICT education.