Creating opportunities for Ghana’s youth through ICT
Ghana’s telecommunications giant, MTN Ghana, has once again entrenched its dominance in the industry and further demonstrated its position as a company that is not only out there to make profit but to give back to society.
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It has also proved to be not only a major taxpayer to the state but one that is poised to help accelerate the country’s socio-economic advancement by creating opportunities for the youth.
Last week, the company cut sod to undertake the construction of an ICT Hub in its quest to develop the country’s ICT ecosystem in the areas of health, agriculture and education through on-site and remote access delivery to facilitate skills development and job creation for the youth.
To be known as the Ghana ICT Hub, it will arguably be the largest-ever ICT project in the company’s over-25 years history in the country.
Estimated to cost about US$25million, the project is aimed at facilitating and deepening the country’s digital transformation agenda.
Focus on the youth
The hub project is meant to play a critical role in deepening the foundational root of the country’s digitalisation agenda, while giving the budding youth a chance to transform Ghana in ways never imagined.
About 1.74 million (13.4 per cent) of the total working population of 13 million in the age bracket of 15 years and above, in the first quarter of the year were unemployed, according to a study conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
It was estimated that unemployment rate in Ghana was 4.80 per cent as of the end of 2022, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. In the long-term, the Ghana Unemployment Rate is projected to trend around five per cent in 2023 and 4.70 per cent in 2024, according to our econometric models.
These numbers paint a gloomy picture with many already fearing that the rate of unemployment in the country is a security threat to the nation that needed urgent attention.
With technology fast taking over every human activity, the development opens up many opportunities for the youth.
This is also the more reason why there is the need for the development of platforms to help the youth to develop their potentials to aid the accelerated socio-economic advancement of the country.
The Silicon Valley in the United States of America portrays a history of relationships between academic institutions, venture funds, accelerators, support facilities and a willing government, as well as thousands of bright minds from industry.
This is where the Ghana ICT Hub comes in handy because it is also expected to position the country’s youth for the future while deepening the relationship between government and the private sector.
According to MTN, its purpose is to prepare the youth of Ghana to have better prospects of succeeding and competing in the global digital economy.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of MTN, Selorm Adadevor, it is the dream of the company to transform Ghana through ICT-enablement because it has no boundaries, stressing that the Ghana ICT Hub project “is only a small part of a broader project called the ‘Ghana Innovation Hub’ project.”
Ghana ICT Hub
The Ghana ICT Hub is a physical Infrastructure designed to provide 4,000 square metres of space with ancillary facilities and unique features.
The whole project is scheduled to be completed in approximately 18 months from when construction begins.
When completed, the Ghana ICT Hub is expected to train over 200,000 youth in ICT and digital skills and generate more than 100,000 jobs within the first three years.
The hub will be an ultra-modern office facility, providing office spaces and meeting venues for more than 100 tech companies which will incubate new ideas and innovations, driving the start-up buzz in the hub after completion.
It will also create an ICT ecosystem in the health, agriculture and education sectors.
Conclusion
The role of the private sector to the development of the country should not only come by way of payment of taxes alone.
It must also be seen through projects that impact life with less or virtually no profit motive but in line with a bigger state agenda.
This positive initiative is also an indication that when the private sector is given the necessary enabling environment, it stands the chance to also contribute its quota to economic growth.
Businesses in other sectors of the economy should be able to emulate this laudable example to assist the government to develop talents and help to ease the unemployment problems in the country.