MTN Ghana joins Communications Minister to tour Girls-in-ICT Programme training centres 

By Albert Futukpor

    Tamale, July 29, GNA – Representatives of MTN Ghana has joined Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister for Communications and Digitalisation to tour some training centres for selected girls as part of the Girls-in-ICT Programme being held in the Northern Region. 

    The training centres toured were Tamale Community Information Centre, and the Sagnarigu Community Information Centre. 

    The tour was to enable the delegation to witness and assess the training being held for the selected girls in basic ICT skills that is expected to expose them to coding, cyber security and website development. 

    The Girls-In-ICT Programme, which was introduced in 2012 by the International Telecommunications Union to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider studies and careers in the growing field of ICTs, is being implemented by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation with MTN Ghana as one of the sponsors. 

     The ICT training for the girls started on July 17, where 1,000 girls, selected from all the 16 districts in the region, were divided into two batches to each undergo the training within five days. 

    After the training, the girls will participate in a competition in ICT, and a mentorship and climax session from July 31 to August 01, where the best 100 girls to emerge out of the competition, would be given awards (laptops and certificates). 

    After the climax, an open day experience would be held where the best 100 girls would be sent to Accra for a week to tour the offices of mobile network operators including MTN Ghana and selected Agencies of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation to interact especially with women in the industry. 

    Mrs Owusu-Ekuful, briefing journalists after touring the training centres, said “I have been very impressed with the quality of instruction that they have received from the facilitators and how they have also applied themselves with regard to the knowledge they have received. Some said they had never seen or touched a computer before. Now, they are creating their own games. They can create their own word documents and do other things with the computer.” 

GNA