The Ministry of Communications, in partnership with its agencies is conducting training for about 570 school girls in the Oti Region, as part of the annual National Girls in ICT celebrations.

The Girls in ICT initiative is one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Communications and is in line with the International Girls in ICT Day, an initiative backed by all ITU Member States, which aims to encourage and empower girls and young women to consider studies and careers in the growing field of ICTs, enabling both girls and technology companies to reap the benefits of greater female participation in the ICT sector.

As part of the training, a brief tour and inspection of the training centres was held by the Ministry and the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC).

Addressing trainees of the programme, Abraham Kofi Asante, Administrator of GIFEC, speaking on behalf of the sector Minister Madam Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said, girls in ICT is a program organised to train girls in ICT, especially in coding, to peak their interest in the current ICT world.

He said in Oti Region, the girls were selected from schools in the Jasikan District, Kadjebi District, Biakoye District, Nkwanta North & South Districts, Krachi Districts and the SALL communities.

Mr. Asante added that girls who will perform well in the training would be selected and giving certificates and received award of establishment of an ultramodern ICT laboratory to provide more rooms for such school to advance their skills in ICT.

The Chief Executive Officer said, the Ministry of Communications would be establishing ICT centers in the Oti Regional Capital to serve as resource center to build ICT capacities. He also encouraged the students to put more efforts and become conduct researchers and plan designers in future.

The training centers the team visited include Kyabobo girls Junior High School laboratory in the Nkwanta South Municipal, Nkwanta South Municipal ICT laboratory, Nkwanta South SHS Technical laboratory and Oti SHS Technical laboratory in the Krachi East Municipal.

Also present at the tour were Madam Veronica Sackey (Director, Policy, Planning, Montoring and Evaluation) and Madam Dora Darkwa-Mensah (Director, Human Resources) of the Ministry of Communications, who encouraged the students to focus on the training in order to gain maximum knowledge from the training to guarantee them careers in ICT.

Students who were under the ICT training expressed their gratitude to the Ministry of Communications and GIFEC for supporting them to become ICT experts in their future.