Accra, Ghana//-Members of the MTN Ghana’s Women In Technology (WIT) have mentored 80 Girls-in-ICT (GIICT ) as part of this year’s Open Day of the National Girls-in-ICT Day Celebration held in Accra on Monday, 25 April 2022.
The 80 Girls-in-ICT drawn from the Central, Oti, Western North and North East Regions had the unique opportunity to be mentored by these great members of WIT who are workers of the MTN Ghana’s ICT and technology department.
The Open Day for the Girls-in-ICT Initiative was instituted to provide an opportunity for the awardees from the participating regions to be attached to ICT-based Institutions and companies, where they enjoy a week-long interaction with female achievers in the ICT industry.
Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ama Pomaa Boateng, said the mentoring session and other activities of the celebration would further deepen the insight of the girls into the nature of the world of work in the ICT industry.
This she believes would encourage them to the point of knowing that they can also take up careers in this lucrative but male-dominated industry.
Madam Boateng revealed that the ministry and its partners of the Girls-in-ICT Initiative had so far trained 980 girls in the Central region in 2019; while 584 girls were trained in the Oti Region in 2020. Also, 1000 girls were trained in the Western North and North East Regions.
She noted that following the training of the girls in the four regions, they had not been able to bring them to Accra to participate in the weeklong Open Day event due to the Covid-19 pandemic that hit the country and the whole world in 2020.
“Though we were able to hold the celebration in Oti Region in 2020 (i.e. the Covid year), we were unable to bring the awardees to Accra for the usual attachment to ICT-based institutions.
In order not to lose these girls along the way, I resolved to bring 20 girls each from the four regions for which the Open Day event has been outstanding”.
Madam Boateng told journalists after the event that the global theme for the GIICT celebration 2022 which is ‘Access and Safety’ is so relevant.
This is “because, not all our communities have connectivity to access the digital platforms that will support the knowledge acquisition of our girls”.
To address the access issue, she said her ministry through the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) is implementing the Rural Telephony and Digitalisation Inclusion Project which will construct 2,016 rural sites for voice and data nationwide.
Many communities have already benefited and are connected, according to her.
There are also “Safety” concerns in the digital world, and this is topical on the global agenda. The opportunities the internet presents are boundless, however there are dangers online.
Programmes that provide educational resources online may inadvertently create the means for cyber bullying, pornography and other kinds of online crimes, Madam Boateng stated.
“The internet comes with risks to the safety and privacy of our young ladies. Sometimes in our exuberance to acquire knowledge, we may expose our personal and sensitive data to commercial or other forms of exploitation online”.
To this end, the ministry through Parliament passed the Cyber Security Act, 2020 (Act 1038) to establish the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) to oversee and regulate all cyber security issues in Ghana.
The Senior Manager for Sustainability & Social Impact at MTN Ghana Foundation, Robert Kuzoe who spoke to journalists noted that basic skills in ICT are no longer a luxury.
However he said it is a necessity for children irrespective of where they are located if they are to succeed in this information age.
To provide Girl-In-ICT with these essential skills, the ministry, under the sponsorship of MTN Ghana and with the support of other partners are carefully laying real foundations of Ghana’s digital agenda, Mr Kuzoe said.
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