GIFEC, ITU and Norwegian Government Partner With Cisco partner To Launch Digital Skills Initiative
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the Norwegian and Ghanaian Governments in partnership with multinational technology company Cisco officially launched the ITU-Norway partnership on the Digital Transformation Centres (DTC) Initiative in Ghana, by hosting a Virtual press conference.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Norwegian Government and the Government of Ghana have signed agreements that will support the Digital Transformation Centres (DTC) Initiative in Ghana. The ITU in partnership with Cisco and its Country Digital Acceleration Program and Cisco Networking Academy, the initiative seeks to create a global network of centres, whose main purpose is to develop digital skills mainly at basic and intermediate level for citizens.
“It is an honour and inspiration for us at Cisco to work with you all. Norway’s government presented a whitepaper recently; highlighting just how important digital technology is for the ability to achieve Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. We truly believe, at Cisco, just how incredibly important the skills are as part of this journey overall. I also would really like to commend the government of Ghana for leaning in to help equip its citizens with getting these digital skills and capabilities on board.” Says Wendy Mars, President of Cisco’s EMEAR region.
It will provide around 14,000 citizens with job-ready digital skills, in particular women entrepreneurs, pupils, teachers and marginalised groups, through 200 centres across the country. The new partnership with Norway will help DTCs, in particular in Ghana, to accelerate building an inclusive digital society, to ensure that lack of knowledge and skills is not a barrier to participation in the digital economy.
Raphel Success, a graduate of the Get Connected programme, states, “When I joined, I used the Get Connected programme to revise myself on what I actually know. This helped me get a deeper knowledge of programming and learn even more things about how to program. My advice to first time programmers, it’s good to introduce them to also have a little bit of knowledge to increase their confidence levels.”
