200 Ghanaian youth benefit from ECOWAS ICT training programme
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has initiated a programme to train 200 Ghanaian youth for free in Information Communication Technology (ICT).
Advertisement
The 10-day training, which started on June 3 and will end on June 14, 2024, will equip the beneficiaries will skills in software, web and mobile application development. Similarly, others will also be taught skills in cable television installation.
ECOWAS partnered Ramsy Info Tech Solutions Limited to provide the training for the beneficiaries, who were mainly selected from the Greater Accra region and its environs.
The ECOWAS Resident Representative in Ghana, Baba Gana Waki, at the opening of the programme said the initiative was aimed at helping youth in the members countries to gain employable skills.
He said the initiative would also help to reduce unemployment as well as to save the youth in the bloc from engaging in drugs and other social vices.
He expressed the concern that many of the region’s youth are vulnerable to being recruited into extremist groups due to high unemployment rate in the region.
For him, when the youth are given employable skills, it would enable them to employ themselves and even employ others, stressing that the region could use digital technology to reduce unemployment significantly.
Amb. Gana Wakil said the future of ECOWAS was in the hands of its youth, noting that currently, about 65 per cent of the region's 300 million population were youth.
Other Trending Stories
For him, equipping the region's youth with digital knowledge would help the region to compete favourably on a global scale, particularly when it comes to ICT.
“No economy can grow without embracing ICT and digital transformation. Digital skills are essential not only for economic growth but also for addressing social and political issues, such as fighting terrorism through cybersecurity and data analytics”, he stated.
Amb. Gana Wakil said it was the intention of ECOWAS to aggressively invest in its youth, saying ECOWAS aims to catch the youth young and equip them with digital skills to become capable leaders in the future.
“Developing digital skills and entrepreneurship can help the youth create their own businesses and wean themselves off reliance on government employment”, he said, adding that similar initiatives were being organised in other member states of the bloc.
He commended Ghana's efforts in developing its digital infrastructure to help transform the country in that direction.