Deputy Minister of Communications, gFelix Kwakye Ofosu, has emphasised government’s commitment to scale up investments in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry to benefit from the sector’s huge potential as a global dominant employer.

“The country remains very committed to invest more to improve speed and fast access to data to transform the country through ICT,” he added.

Mr Ofosu was addressing the 5th National Girls in ICT celebration in Tamale under the theme: “Girls in ICT; Key to Entrepreneurship and Development”.

Mr Ofosu said the development and expansion of the national broadband infrastructure was on course and had connected 120 communities along the Eastern corridor to the system to boost faster, easier voice and data quality to enhance business transactions and ICT education.

He said various strategies have also been taken to stop cybercrime in the country noting that other measures were also being taken to ensure that children do not get easy access to sites with pornographic materials.

Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies, Professor Alhassan Seidu, who chaired the function lauded the initiative to introduce younger girls to ICT and said such an intervention would prepare them for careers in the area of ICT in the near future.

He said “ICT for accelerated development”, has been a policy started in 2003 to educate and expose all pupils across the country to ICT knowledge but expressed worry that despite the introduction of the policy, many rural schools were still without ICT facilities.

Prof. Seidu also bemoaned the situation where a larger proportion of teachers who were supposed to educate pupils lack knowledge in ICT.

Northern Regional Minister, Abdallah Abubakari, said the government has made numerous interventions aimed at empowering women across the country which would give them the opportunity to participate in societal discourse.

He appealed to all political parties and activist to be decorous in their language as they embarked on their political campaigns to ensure that the 2016 polls were peaceful before, during and after.

The celebration brought together 1,008 school girls drawn from 12 districts of the Northern Region who competed in various ICT contests to be climaxed at an international event instituted by the International Communication Union.

All the participants were presented with laptop computers and other accessories to enhance their knowledge.