Prince Ofosu Sefah, administrator and CEO of Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), has paid a working visit to the Central Region to monitor the training of visually-impaired citizens as part of an ongoing Introduction to Computer Basics for the Visually Impaired (ICBVI) Training by GIFEC, taking place across the country.

Mr. Sefah encouraged beneficiaries to take maximum advantage of the training to acquire the requisite knowledge to navigate the current ‘World Order’ which requires increased knowledge in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), for personal, social and economic development, adding that GIFEC is determined to ensure that more visually-impaired citizens benefit from this training.

He added that “the ongoing session is training 450 visually-impaired citizens in 13 regions on the computer fundamentals over a 15-day period, including the training of 60 persons in Cape Coast, Winneba and Assin Fosu in the Central Region”.

The ICBVI is a component of the Digital Transformation Centers (DTC) project, which GIFEC has been implementing with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), and Cisco, and is being run in collaboration with the stFoundation.

The component has been designed to provide basic specialised ICT knowledge to persons with visual impairment, with the goal of improving their knowledge in the subject and giving them an opportunity to participate meaningfully in the Information Society.

The Digital Transformation Centers Project is a collaborative initiative between GIFEC, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and Cisco. It is implemented through funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and counterpart-funding from GIFEC, focused on requisite supervision of the programme.

The programme forms part of a broader goal of building an inclusive digital society where lack of digital skills should not be a barrier to participation in the digital economy. It aims at building a digitally literate citizenry to boost their ICT capabilities to enable them to participate meaningfully in the knowledge society of today.

The programme involves training of beneficiaries, spanning students, teachers, women and girls, youth, and the marginalised in communities such as head porters, school dropouts and school leavers, in Cisco certified courses.

It is meant to develop digital capacities, at the basic and intermediate levels, particularly in Underserved and Underserved communities, and features courses like Introduction to Cybersecurity, Cybersecurity Essentials, Introduction to IoT, Python, C++ and Entrepreneurship, which we term the DTC Training Suite. It also includes Coding Clubs and ICBVI Training across, the country.

The project, which is in its final year of execution, started in 2021, and has trained over 17,000 Ghanaians to-date. About 3,000 more people will be trained this year to bring the total number of beneficiaries to approximately 20,000, exceeding the original target of 14,000, utilising about the same budgeted funding.