La Bawaleshie Presby School builds capacity in ICT

The programme organised by Soronko Academy, a leading Coding School in West Africa, in partnership with MTN under the auspices of MTN Foundation was on the theme “Expanding Horizons, Changing Attitudes.”

It formed part of activities marking this year’s Girls in ICT Day, a global day which had been set aside by the international community to encourage women to embrace ICT.

As part of the programme, there was a panel discussion where five technology staff of MTN who are women shared their experience with the young girls and encouraged them to pursue courses in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), stressing that STEM education was not a preserve for boys and girls could also take courses in such areas.

In addition, there was an application challenge where the participants were given opportunity to develop their own applications.

Opening the programme, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications at the Corporate Services Division of MTN Ghana, Georgina Asare Fiagbenu said globally only three per cent of women were engaged in technology and the situation was the same in Ghana.

She said it was against that backdrop the MTN last year entered into partnership with Soronko Academy to build the skills of women and encourage them to pursue careers in the ICT field.

“The statistics of female participation in ICT jobs must change.  We need to encourage more girls to pursue careers in ICT and engineering in Ghana and across the globe.  The subject of ICT and engineering is not only interesting, it also leads to careers that impacts our everyday lives, makes a real difference in our family, community, country as well as help make the world a better place,” Mrs  Fiagbenu said.

The Chief Executive Officer of Soronko Academy, Regina Honu said the programme was to empower women to venture into the ICT sector to reverse the low women representation in the technology sector.

She said the programme was to also expose young girls to the opportunities that exist in the technology sector and give them opportunity to develop applications to address societal problems.

“So far Soronko Academy has trained 5000 young girls in ICT in eight regions of the country. Some have gotten scholarship at Ashesi University and others have established their own technology companies,” Mrs Honu said.

The CEO expressed gratitude to MTN Foundation for the support and appealed to other corporate organisations to support initiatives aimed at building the capacity of the girl-child in ICT.

Martha Gyamfi, a participant of the Girls in ICT Programme, who spoke to the Ghanaian Times said, she was excited about the programme.

She said the programme had broadened her horizon about ICT education and dispelled the   myth that STEM was a preserve of boys.

 

By Kingsley Asare

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