The Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, has announced that the Government is pursuing the creation of 100,000 digitally skilled jobs over the next two years through its flagship One Million Coders Initiative.
He indicates that the programme is progressing beyond the provision of coding and digital technology instruction to encompass the generation of employment prospects by facilitating connections between programme participants and enterprises requiring proficient digital professionals.
During a supervisory inspection in the Ashanti Region, he said that while the Government’s initial undertaking under the National Democratic Congress manifesto was to train one million Ghanaians in digital competencies, President John Dramani Mahama has directed the Ministry to ensure programme participants secure employment upon completing their training.
In his assessment, the Government has furnished the President with documentation regarding the initiative’s advancement and maintains confidence in accomplishing the objective of instructing one million Ghanaians throughout the four-year timeframe.
He communicated that the administration is presently prioritising the development of a substantial cohort of qualified professionals to fulfil the escalating requirement for digital services, particularly from multinational corporations intending to delegate operations to Ghana.
“We have presented His Excellency with the programme’s trajectory; we shall attain one million within the four years. We are now redirecting our emphasis from instruction toward employment generation, and I am assured our objective is to accomplish 100,000 digitally skilled positions,” he stated.
The Minister revealed that the initiative has previously assembled a collection of 10,000 data annotators whose competencies may be presented to enterprises requiring personnel for designated digital undertakings.
The Minister’s inspection of the Ashanti Region constitutes an element of endeavours to examine the initiative’s development and appraise the execution of the programme across multiple training establishments.
He toured several facilities and artificial intelligence research institutes at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, subsequently visiting additional facilities in Kwadaso, Asawase, and Nkwantakese.
Throughout these visits, he engaged with program beneficiaries, attentively heard their grievances, and provided assurances that the matters they presented would receive appropriate attention.
