The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), has completed digital skills training for 2,550 persons across the country, in the second batch of the Digital Transformation Centres (DTC) Project.

Speaking at the climax ceremony at Obomeng – Kwahu in the Eastern Region on Friday, March 11, 2022, Mr. Prince Sefah, the Administrator of GIFEC, said, “the two-week training programme, which was held in 83 centres across all 16 regions of the country benefitted 2,550 persons, comprising women entrepreneurs, school dropouts, school-leavers, head porters, teachers, students, and persons with disability who have acquired skills in Cisco Get Connected, Entrepreneurship and Introduction to IoT.”

Mr. Sefah highlighted achievements made by the Fund through strategic partnerships embarked on in recent years in scaling up initiatives and called on relevant and well-intentioned stakeholders to lend their support so that together, an inclusive society will become a reality.

He urged all participants to capitalize on the skills acquired through this rare opportunity, to enhance their businesses, employability, and their lives in general, for economic benefits.

Finally, he pledged GIFEC’s commitment to ensuring the sustained impact of the project, saying, “We will engage beneficiaries to effectively assess the impact of this project, for continuous improvement, through our upcoming Impact Assessment Research Project, which will evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of each project for the achievement of our growing mandates”.

The Chief of Obomeng, Nana Effah Pinamang III, also emphasized the need for all persons to embrace ICT, adding that the acquisition of digital skills is not limited to children or students only. He said that adults should also develop an interest in the field of ICT to enhance their social and economic wellbeing.

Hon. Emmanuel Atta Ofori, Municipal Chief Executive of Kwahu South, touched on GIFEC’s contribution to ICT and skills development in the provision of ICT equipment, telephony, and capacity building in the Municipality, and urged all to embrace it.

The DTC project is in partnership with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Cisco, and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), and aimed at increasing a digitally literate citizenry, to boost their ICT capabilities to enable them to participate more meaningfully in the knowledge society of today.

GIFEC is working hard to increase the digital skills of citizens to increase participation in the digital economy. It involves various components, including the formation of Coding Clubs to train 1,000 students in Coding across the country. 4,178 persons had been trained, in the first batch of the DTC training, which took place in 2021.