Ghanaian Business Owners and Entrepreneurs have been advised to embrace and employ digital media to increase productivity and increase market avenues for their products to increase income levels.

Mr Daniel Nang, the Chief Executive Officer, Dansyn Innovation Social Organization (Dansyn ISO), a Non-Governmental Organization, said the new media was a major tool that had the potential to contribute significantly to the achievement of economic transformation when well harnessed.

He, therefore, called on the youth in business to use the digital platforms to create market avenues for their products, to help increase sales and improve productivity.

Mr Nang made the call at a stakeholder consultative meeting on the role of digital media in transforming the local economy for job creation and economic development.

It was organized by Dansyn ISO in collaboration with Ghana Tech Lab and funded by the Mastercard Foundation, Ministry of Communication, Young African Works and the World Bank.

The meeting sought to engage key stakeholders to outline the skill gaps, challenges, opportunities, strategies and policies for transforming the local economy to achieve sustainable development through digital skills and entrepreneurship.

It also solicited inputs to formulate a policy document that would feed into the development of a well-structured and informed curriculum and ultimately serve as a roadmap for achieving a local digital economy through digital media technology in Ghana.

The CEO said many people did not make good use of the technological devices available to them to create jobs for themselves through digital media.

He said when investment and the needed skills on digital media technology was acquired it would significantly transform the fortunes of the economy, reduce labour intensity and increase productivity.

The CEO noted that the emergence of digital media had reshaped the traditional media as forms of communication and it was yielding positive results, leading to an increase in production and reduction in cost.

He said the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic reduced physical contact and forced many to resort to online working systems, reduced the cost of labour in certain organizations while the needed results were still met.

He, therefore, called on stakeholders to invest in training the youth on digital media technology to enable them to create jobs for themselves and contribute to improving the local economy.

Mr Johnson Agolmah, the Bolgatanga Municipal Coordinator for the Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo), explained that the government resorted to digital media in all activities regarding the implementation of the NaBCo intervention and it had saved it a lot of costs.

The engagement brought together representatives from the Youth Employment Agency, business owners, youth and media practitioners among others.