GIFEC equips over 400 students with coding skills in Ghana

The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) in 2018 has been able to equip students with coding skills. GIFEC did this through its Coding for Kids programme, and 4500 students across Ghana have benefited from this initiative.

The Administrator of GIFEC, Mr. Abraham Kofi Asante, disclosed this at the orientation session for the NaBCo trainees. This took place on Monday 19 November under the module, ‘Digitise Ghana’ in Accra.

Mr. Asante also said the organization wants to expand it capacity building activities and spread it into the informal sector. They are doing this to equip over 100,000 members of the beneficiary communities. This skills to enable them “navigate effectively in today’s highly technological world”, Mr. Asante noted.

“These novel target groups will include market men and women, mechanics, carpenters, drivers, tailors, and other artisans,” he said.

Expectations of GIFEC

Also, talking about GIFEC’s expectation of the NaBCo trainees under the ‘Digitise Ghana’ module, Abraham said the organization required the trainees’ services to deliver its mandate of “bridging the digital divide between the served and the un-served communities.”

“Undoubtedly, in this information age, most nations have achieved greatness through the application of technology to ease business, improve efficiency, cut costs, improve earnings and increase productivity.

“Ghana cannot be left behind and therefore the President’s digitization and transformation agenda will have to be pursued relentlessly from a multi-sectorial perspective to ensure the creation of a robust digital economy.

“The ‘Digitise Ghana’ module is a cross-cutting module that provides a one-stop solution to most of the active and latent government programmes and initiatives.”

Kofi Asante also claimed GIFEC has 226 community ICT centres across the country. And they are currently being renovated to enable them to serve the community hubs for ICT and e-government services.

Again, over 500 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) teachers across the country have been provided skills boost by GIFEC to enhance their capacities in effectively teaching the subject in basic schools.

The ‘Digitise Ghana’ module has provided employment to over 16000 graduates who were previously unemployed at a cost of over GH¢14million. And this module has GIFEC as its lead implementer.