Finnish government commits to ICT for girls

The Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria with oversight responsibility for Ghana, Madam Pirjo Suomela-Chowdhury, says the Finnish government will continue to support Ghana in the area of girl-child education in information and communications technology (ICT).

She announced that the Finnish Embassy, in partnership with two local institutions (Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology [MEST] and STEMbees), was holding workshops for about 40.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Communications, Madam Suomela-Chowdhury said the embassy would encourage the girl-child to participate in the workshop and added that it was expected that at least half of the participants should be girls.

Courtesy call

She said this during a courtesy call on the Minister of Communications, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, in Accra.

Madam Suomela-Chowdhury is in the country as part of the celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of  Finland’s independence.

Why the workshop

She explained that the workshop was to promote cooperation between innovators and businesses in the two countries and pledged that Finnish technology experts would partner  local technology hubs in building the capacity of programming instructors.

The ambassador expressed the hope that such partnership would help increase knowledge and confidence in technology among the youth at the grass-roots level.

Promotion of technology

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful commended the ambassador for the promotion of technology development and girl-child education, describing it as a passion she totally shared.

She said the government was committed to promoting girl-child education in the country.

Broadband infrastructure

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful conveyed the government’s appreciation for Finland’s involvement in the development of Ghana’s broadband infrastructure.

She said the government was satisfied with the work undertaken by Nokia on the Eastern Corridor optic fibre project and added that the government was looking forward to greater cooperation.