The Minister of Communications, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has pointed out that the unavailability of the critical competencies to deal with cyber security issues is a primary cause of increased global challenges in the fight against cyber threat.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful cited a 2017 Global Information Security Workforce Study - Benchmarking Workforce Capacity and Response to Cyber Risk conducted by Frost & Sullivan early this year, which notes that 66 per cent of organisations identified the lack of skillset in addressing cyber threats as a major challenge. The study further projected cyber security workforce shortage at 1.8 million by the year 2022.

She further emphasised that despite the strides being made in ICT development in the country, the growing menace of cybercrime and other information security related challenges is gradually eroding these significant gains.

She lamented that the short supply of cyber security skills in Ghana, is particularly noticeable in the current curriculum of tertiary institutions. “Few higher learning institutions run dedicated cyber security and forensics programmes, and we need to reverse this trend by encouraging educational institutions to offer practical cyber security courses to support government’s drive to step up Ghana’s cyber security readiness,” she said.

The Communications Minister made these remarks when she officially opened a maiden Certificate Course in Cyber Security, jointly organised by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), and the e-Crime Bureau.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful commended KAIPTC and e-Crime Bureau for the initiative, as it marked the fruition of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two institutions in 2016 to jointly deepen knowledge and develop capacity in the area of cyber security, intelligence and forensics.

About 65 participants are undergoing the week-long training course, which will focus on thematic areas such as cybercrimes and transnational crimes, cyber security governance and cyber defense and national security, as well as hands-on sessions to be conducted at the e-Crime Academy Cyber Lab.