He made the call during a working visit by a delegation of Zimbabwean Members of Parliament on a fact-finding mission to explore Ghana’s innovation ecosystem and educational development models.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, July 2, Mr. Iddrisu acknowledged that while progress has been made in the ICT space, more deliberate efforts are required to establish innovation hubs nationwide and expand digital infrastructure.

“The government and the president have allocated an equivalent of almost $45 million for our national research fund. Our institutions are doing pretty well, and ICT is still not the best. We have to get more connected and deploy more fibre and broadband. Internet connectivity and its usage are not the best, but I can only agree with you that Africa still has a governance deficit and governance challenge,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Thokozani Khupe, leader of the Zimbabwean delegation, urged African governments to invest significantly in empowering the youth through information technology and entrepreneurship.

“We now want to produce job creators and not job seekers, so that when our students graduate from university, instead of them starting to look for a job, we want them to create jobs. So we are saying that if a student has an idea, the student must be given a space in the innovation hub so they can start working on their product, so that at the end of the day, they can produce a product that is ready for market,” she said.

The visit forms part of ongoing regional cooperation efforts to promote innovation-led education and youth entrepreneurship across Africa.