The Ministry of Communications, in partnership with its agencies, is conducting training for about 570 schoolgirls in the Oti Region.

As part of the annual National Girls in Information & Communications Technology (ICT) celebrations, these girls and young women will be encouraged and empowered to enter into ICT related studies and careers.

It is also to enable both girls and technology companies to reap the benefits of greater female participation in the ICT sector.

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 backed by all ITU (International Technology Union) Member States.

As part of the training, a brief tour and inspection of the training centres was done 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 the ICT program was organised to train girls in coding and also to pique their interest in the current ongoings of the ICT world.

He indicated that in the 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.

Abraham Asante added: "Girls who will perform well in the training would be selected, given certificates and an award of the establishment of an ultramodern ICT laboratory to provide more rooms for such school to advance their skills in ICT".

“The Ministry of Communications would be establishing ICT centres in the Oti Regional Capital to serve as a resource center to build ICT capacities," he noted.

He also encouraged the students to put more efforts into their participation in the programme and become researchers and plan designers in future.

The training centres 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 Municipality.

Also present at the tour were Veronica Sackey (Director, Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation) and Dora Darkwa-Mensah (Director, Human Resources) of the Ministry of Communications, who encouraged the students to focus on the training in order to gain the 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 the laudable initiative.