With Ghana’s dedication to ‘Moving Beyond Aid’ and developing the local digital economy, there have been many notable achievements over the years.
Notable among them are:
⁻ Ghana recorded the highest internet penetration rate (53%), as well as the highest electronic Connectivity Index (86.43), in the West African Sub-region, in 2022.
⁻ Ghana has close to 19 million unique mobile subscribers, equivalent to 67 percent of the population, which is higher than the Sub-Saharan African average of 44 percent.
⁻ Ghana topped the African countries with the fastest internet speed in the latest global ranking as well as significant investment in rural network coverage through the Rural Telephony Project which helped to improve communication coverage levels in underserved communities from 83% to 95% by providing affordable ICT infrastructure.
Huawei is proud to have contributed to many of these achievements including Rural Telephony and the government’s Digital Inclusion Project. Through this project, Huawei deployed 2,000 base stations in rural areas and provided voice and data services to 3.4 million people, 2,000 schools, and 200 rural clinics.
All these achievements have paved the way for Ghana to transition to a growing digital economy; with the younger generation being the main driving force for this progress. However, it cannot be denied that the demand for digital talent in Ghana is outstripping the supply.
Research shows that by 2030, 50 percent of all jobs and 75-80 percent of formal sector jobs in Ghana will require significant digital skills as a prerequisite. This fact prevents young people from reaching their full potential in the digital age. To address this gap, Huawei, a leading ICT company in the world and a long-time partner of the Government of Ghana, is committed to improving the digital skills capacity of more Ghanaians by introducing the ‘LEAP digital talent program – which promotes ‘Leadership. ‘, ‘Employability’, ‘Advancement’, and ‘Possibilities’ of people by equipping them with sufficient digital skills.
Under the LEAP program, we aim to provide ICT training to one hundred thousand (100,000) people from 2022 to 2024 in Ghana, together with industrial and academic partners.
In addition to providing world-class training lessons and certificates for policymakers, young graduates and ICT professionals while improving the digital literacy skills of the public, Huawei is also dedicated to improving the direct experience of the program’s beneficiaries. It is against this backbone that we established the Ghana ICT Talent Development Center (GITDeC) in Ghana, to improve the career readiness of youth interested in joining the ICT industry and equip them with hands-on experience in the real world.
The Ghana ICT Talent Development Center has been set up to offer training in the installation of telecommunications equipment, standard quality control, EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) compliance, and the use of digital delivery platforms. All these courses are designed based on real-world job demands.
There will be full-time qualified instructors and skilled engineers on site to guide and support the trainees. “There is no need to fear the wind when your roots are deep”, says an African proverb. At Huawei, we believe that the LEAP program, will spread and spread the roots of digital prosperity in Ghana.
This initiative strongly encourages people, especially the youth, to be in the spotlight and invest heavily in people with the ultimate goal of realizing the growth of the youth, community and society, as well as the country they love. With this approach, economic progress is inevitable. We also see the launch of the Ghana ICT Talent Development Center as a clarion call for more collaboration. The goals of ICT talent development and the provision of adequate digital skills cannot be achieved by individuals. “It takes a village to raise a child,” he said.
Therefore, we must work closely with government, industry, and academia, as well as leverage domestic and international resources, expertise and partnerships. This will allow us to build an ecosystem that is open to everyone and all parties can benefit from.
We believe that, with a strong pool of digital talent and extensive collaboration among stakeholders, Ghana’s digital future will be within reach.
Source: Mr. Tommy Liang, CEO, Huawei Ghana
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