The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) has completed digital skills training for 2,550 persons across the country.

This is the second batch of the Digital Transformation Centres (DTC) Project.

The training is in line with the digital transformation agenda which aims at making the use of technology easier for all sectors of the economy.

Speaking at the climax ceremony in the Eastern Region, the Administrator of GIFEC, Prince Sefah, revealed that “the two-week training programme, which was held in 83 centres across all 16 regions of the country trained 2,550 persons, comprising Women Entrepreneurs, School Dropouts, School leavers, Head Porters, Teachers, Students, the Youth and Persons with Disability have acquired skills in Cisco Get Connected, Entrepreneurship and Introduction to IoT.”

Mr. Sefah highlighted on achievements made by the Fund through strategic partnerships embarked on in recent years in scaling up initiatives and called on relevant and well-intentioned stakeholders to lend their support, so that together, an inclusive society will become a reality.

He urged all participants to capitalize on the skills acquired through this rare opportunity, to enhance your businesses, employability and your lives in general, for economic benefits.

Finally, he pledged GIFEC’s commitment to ensuring sustained impact of the project, saying that “We will engage beneficiaries to effectively assess the impact of this project, for continuous improvement, through our upcoming Impact Assessment Research Project, which will evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of each project for the achievement of our growing mandates”.

The Chief of Obomeng, Nana Effah Pinamang III who hosted the climax also emphasized the need for all persons to embrace ICT, adding that the acquisition of digital skills is not limited children or students only. He said that adults should also develop an interest in the field of ICT to enhance their social and economic wellbeing.

Touching on GIFEC’s contribution to ICT and skills development in the Municipality, Municipal Chief Executive of Kwahu South, Emmanuel Atta Ofori, said that GIFEC has been instrumental in the provision of ICT equipment, Telephony and Capacity Building and encouraged all to take full advantage of these developments for maximum benefits.

The DTC project is in partnership with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Cisco and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), and aimed at increasing a digitally literate citizenry, to boost their ICT capabilities to enable them participate more meaningfully in the Knowledge Society of today.

GIFEC is working hard to increase the digital skills of citizens to increase participation in the digital economy, and involves various components, including the formation of Coding Clubs to train 1,000 students in Coding across the country. 4,178 persons had been trained, in the first batch of the DTC training, which took place in 2021.