International humanitarian organisation Rockfeller Foundation has announced a $3.8 million grant to facilitate completion of a mini ICT park to be located in central Accra, Ghana.
The philanthropic foundation has collaborated with World Bank to empower the West African nation's IT and IT enabled service industry, reveals a statement.
According to the foundation, the grant complements the World Bank’s $5 million provided under the eGhana Project and is part of the its Digital Jobs Africa initiative launched in 2013.
The Digital Jobs Africa initiative is a $100million initiative aimed at improving 1 million lives through ICT skills and jobs for high potential but disadvantaged youth.
“As the Rockefeller Foundation enters its second year of our $100m Digital Jobs Africa initiative, we applaud the commitment of the Ghanaian government for steering the hiring at this new state of the art ICT Park towards poor and vulnerable youth – which will help to achieve our ultimate goal of impacting the lives of 1 million people through digital jobs for disadvantaged youth,” said Mamadou Biteye, managing director of the Rockefeller Foundation Africa Regional Office.
“When young people are empowered economically, the entire nation will benefit,” Biteye said.
The new mini ICT park is expected to have the potential of providing direct and indirect employment to over 10,000 people, primarily youth, who have few alternative job opportunities.
In addition, the proposed centre is also expected to function as a mini-ICT park, whose impact is to move Ghana up the ranking among the Tier 2 countries, but most importantly the IT and IT enabled services (ITES) sector is deemed most likely to absorb large numbers of unemployed and disadvantaged youth.
The Rockefeller Foundation’s Digital Jobs Africa initiative is being implemented in six countries in Africa namely Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt and Morocco.
Ghana's minister of communications Dr. Edward Omane Boamah concluded, “Not only can we transform the ICT sector, making Ghana internationally competitive, we can provide opportunities for hundreds of disadvantaged young people who have the skills and drive to work in the digital economy, but are only lacking the access and opportunity.”
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