Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu Ekuful has hinted that the country is moving towards a direction where digital skills will be required in all forms of entrepreneurship and vocational fields.

According to her, the use of ICT tools will be made available to students at all levels in order to prepare them for the anticipated future.

Speaking at the Mentorship Day for students in the Bono East Region that are participating in this year’s “Girls in ICT initiative”, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful therefore assured that government will ensure more rural areas are connected to any form of ICT, through the support of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC).

“ICT will be needed in all fields of work that we are doing as a people. The world is moving at a much faster pace that even if you want to be a mechanic or just a driver, you will need ICT and digital education.”

“ICT will push us into whatever work we want to do after school, so let’s take the ICT training very serious from here. Government will do it's best to equip you and make available ICT centres in most parts of the country, so that we can all benefit from the internet revolution” she said.

The Girls in ICT is an Initiative by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and supported by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation. It’s aimed at enhancing the school girls’ skills in the field of ICT.

The mentorship day event is part of initiatives by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation to expose the girls to women mentors in the ICT industry.

Under the theme, Access and Safety, this year’s event is expected to train about 5,000 girls from basic and second cycle institutions in the five regions that have been selected. These are Bono East, Bono, Ahafo, Savanna and Northern Regions.

It is also aimed at bringing together women in the industry to mentor girls in the selected regions.

This year’s mentors are from academia, health, and business. They used the occasion to encourage the girls to take advantage of the programme to further enhance their education in Computer Science and other ICT education.

Dr. Mercy Badu who is a lecturer at the Department of Chemistry, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology used the platform to sell the idea of science and technology to the girls.

She advised them to take their education seriously and focus on the goal of becoming career champions in their various fields in technology since the world is moving towards that direction.

“Be a strong person in whatever you want to do in science because it is one of the fields that helps in solving problems in society. Work hard towards it and you can achieve whatever dream you have in ICT” she advised.

Ursula Owusu-Ekuful also made a passionate appeal to the teachers and parents to support their wards in their chosen career of ICT.

The programme for the Bono East Region will climax on Wednesday, 21st April with a grand durbar after which the team will move to the four remaining selected regions.