As part of efforts to bridge the digital gender gap in Ghana especially in rural communities, Bluetown, in partnership with USAID, GIFEC, and DAI, have launched an ICT training project to impact over 4,300 women and also provide internet access to over 16,000 people in rural communities in the Eastern Region.
The Women’s Meaningful Access Semi-urban project, which is focused on providing digital learning skills for young girls between the ages of 15 and 34, is also geared towards improving internet and device usage among young women to improve their trade.
In an interview with Citi News after the launch of the project which was done by Mr. Prince Ofosu Sefah, the Chief Executive of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) in Kyebi, Ann Selorm Fesu – Project Manager, of Bluetown, said she’s hopeful the project will achieve its purpose”.
“The target is women because research shows there is a huge and vast gender gap between men and women in terms of digital skills, so what we want to do with this project is to close the gender digital divide. Aside from that, we have also partnered with GIFEC to run our training sessions on digital skills with a focus on entrepreneurship, job skills, CV writing, and the use of digital applications to get jobs to further their lives. We also have a partnership with THP, The Hunger Project Ghana, to provide this project in rural areas of Addo Nkwanta, Supriso, and Akode where we have provided ICT centers”.
“So now that we are running this project in Koforidua and Kyebi, we hope that we will be able to close the gender digital gap and improve ICT knowledge among women. The project will end in July 2022, and we expect over 4,300 women in training and also provide internet access to over 16,000 people in the rural areas of the Eastern Region.”
She said at the end of the project, they expect that women in the rural part of the Eastern Region will have internet access and will be able to use devices to develop their lives, by learning through the local cloud which is a free service that provides entertainment, education as well as agricultural content for free.
This is expected to increase the employability of women in the region and their job-seeking skills using digital tools.
On her part, Madam Rosemond Obiri Asamoah, the Abuakwa South Municipal Gender Desk Officer who represented the Municipal Chief Executive, called on participants and beneficiaries to take full advantage of the project to improve their trade.
“This project is important to everyone out there, most especially women in my municipality who are not familiar with ICT. We all know the world is now a digital world and everyone needs to come on board to enhance their field of study and this particular project will help my women to know how to access the Internet, expand their business, market and trade using social media, and it will improve their business. I want to tell participants and beneficiaries to take this project seriously, and put in all their best for self-development “.
