The Ministry of Communication is considering a partnership with the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) to get some of the young ones on graduate internship to man the various Information Communication Technology (ICT) centres in the country.
According to the communication minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, who gave the hint, experience had proven that ICT centres that were left in the hands of the various district assemblies had not been managed well, leaving the centres in deplorable states a few months after their establishment.
Ms Owusu-Ekuful, who made these known when speaking at a ceremony to hand over a new Enhanced Community Information Centre (E-CIC) to the people of Akuapem Amanfrom in the Akuapem North District of the Eastern Region, stated that the government was seeking to empower the youth with ICT skills to enable them contribute towards the nation’s rapid technological strides and productivity.
The minister revealed that many creative initiatives aimed at infusing technology into the daily lives of Ghanaians were going to be high on her ministry’s agenda.
According to her, priority would be given to the creation of Wi-Fi hotspots across the country, the development of ICT parks and the putting into good use of the newly-built Accra Digital Centre.
She said Government had begun moves to convert all post offices in the country into electronic service centres to deepen digital financial inclusion and internet access in the hinterlands.
She also added that government was looking at providing mobile phones to all students of Ghana for their courses to be uploaded unto them for the era of carrying school bags with books to be a thing of the past.
The former telecom boss also promised to work together, especially with all existing telecom players within the space to find solutions to some of the industry’s basic challenges.
She further underscored that her outfit was poised to rejuvenate the operations of government agencies, including the National Communication Authority (NCA), the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) and the National Identification Commission, to work better and efficiently to assist the government to derive the maximum benefits from the huge investments put into IT infrastructure.
The Minister for Regional Reorganization and Development and Member of Parliament (MP) for Okere Constituency, Dan Kwaku Botwe, stated that the E-CIC is not only for the people of Amanfrom, but all the schools down the Akuapem ridge.
He expressed appreciation to the chiefs and people of Amanfrom for releasing land for the project and supervising it. He commended the former Minister of Communication, Edward Omane Boamah, for commencing the project.
After the function, Ms Ursula Owusu-Ekufful, accompanied by the Eastern Regional Minister, Eric Kwakye Darfour, went to commission another ICT centre at Akwadum in the New Juabeng Municipality.
Present at the event were Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development and MP for the area, Nana Adjei Boateng; Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Joseph Tetteh and the New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, Comfort Asante.
<<Print>>