The Ministry of Communication, has declared its intent to support the “Girls Can Code” project to empower women.
According to the, Deputy Minister of Communication Mr. Vincent Sowah Adotei in a time span of 2 years, the project will train 300 girls between the ages of 11-14 from the ten Junior High Schools in Ghana.
These students will be trained on coding and how to develop their entrepreneurial skills.
He mentioned that, each child will receive 2hours of training each week for 36 weeks starting from January 2018 to August 2019.
He also mentioned that, the training will be delivered in their school’s computer labs.
But during summer breaks, the girls will attend an ICT Boot Camp.
He mentioned that the project has the potential to positively impact the lives of girls across the country, by exposing them to ICT and programming skills.
He also stated that Ghana has a vibrant digital technology ecosystem, with digital technology improving how we access our everyday essential services which includes banking, Ecommerce , health and other government services.
However, despite the increase in job creation in the technology industry, women remain under represented.
He stated that, engaging girls at an early age and introducing them to computer science applications through innovative and engaging programmes like the Girl Can Code Project, is crucial to breaking the cycle.
He mentioned that government is committed to achieving an all inclusive society and as such recognises ICT as a powerful catalyst for political, social empowerment of women and the promotion of gender equality.
“The Ministry is keen to support the ICT training of girls as well as making it available to a wider section of the population and we look toward to supporting this,” he added.
