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Digital skills to be a requirement in entrepreneurship – Ursula Owusu-Ekuful
The Minister for Communications and Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has hinted that Ghana is moving towards a direction where digital skills will be required in all forms of entrepreneurship and vocational fields.
According to her, the use of ICT tools will be made available to students at all levels in order to prepare them for the anticipated future.
Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful added that government would ensure that more rural areas are connected to some form of ICT through the support of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC).
“ICT will be needed in all fields of work that we are doing as a people. The world is moving at a much faster rate that even if you want to be a mechanic, you will need ICT and digital education. ICT will push us in whatever work we want to do after school so let’s take the ICT training very serious from here. Government will do its best to equip you and make available ICT centres in most parts of the country so that we can all benefit from the internet revolution,” she said.
Mrs Owusu-Ekuful was speaking at the Mentorship Day for students in the Bono East Region who are participating in this year’s ‘Girls in ICT’ initiative.
The ‘Girls in ICT’, which is an initiative by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and enhanced by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, is aimed at enhancing girls’ skills in the field of information communication and technology.
The Mentorship Day event is part of initiatives by the Ministry to expose girls to women mentors in the ICT industry.
Under the theme: ‘Access and Safety’, the event is expected to train about 5,000 girls from basic and second cycle institutions in the five regions which have been selected this year. The regions are Bono East, Bono, Ahafo, Savanna and Northern.
The mentors from academia, health and business used the occasion to encourage the girls to take advantage of the programme to further their education in computer science and other ICT education.
The Minister for Communications and Digitalisation also made a passionate appeal to their teachers to support the students in the chosen career of ICT.
On her part, a lecturer at the Department of Chemistry at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr Mercy Badu, used the platform to sell the idea of science and technology to the girls.
She advised them to take their education seriously and focus on the goal of becoming career champions in their various fields since the world is moving in that direction.
“Be a strong person in whatever you want to do in science because it is one of the fields that help in solving problems in society – work hard towards it and you can achieve whatever dream you have in ICT,” she advised.
The programme for the Bono East Region will climax on Thursday, April 21, 2022, with a grand durbar after which the team will move to the other four selected regions.
Source: www.myjoyonline.com
Ghana Tourism Authority is leading Ghana’s participation at ITB Berlin, which opened in Berlin with a vibrant national pavilion highlighting Ghana’s rich cultural heritage, tourism destinations and investment opportunities.
March 5 has been designated as Ghana Day, a special platform to promote Ghana’s languages, cuisine, Kente, festivals and business prospects to the global tourism community. The stand has already drawn strong interest with traditional arts and crafts displays, immersive multimedia presentations and popular Ghanaian snacks.
Seven private-sector players are exhibiting alongside government officials as part of efforts to deepen trade partnerships, expand market access, and attract investment across the hospitality, heritage tourism, ecotourism, and creative arts sectors.
Ahead of the official opening, the Ghana delegation also engaged young Ghanaian investors in Germany in collaboration with V Afrika-Verein and the Ghana Embassy, strengthening diaspora investment linkages and highlighting opportunities within the tourism value chain.
Ghana’s coordinated presence at ITB Berlin 2026 reinforces its strategy to position the country as the Gateway to Africa and a competitive destination for leisure travel and global investment.
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
