The Minister for Communications and Digitalisation (MoCD), Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has been adjudged the Digital Leader of the Year for the second consecutive time at the 12th Ghana Information Technology and Telecom Awards (GITTA) which was held last night 21st October 2022 at the Movenpick Hotel in Accra.

This was in recognition of her excellent performance in championing Ghana's Digital Transformation Agenda for national development.

The GITTA awards also celebrated other Change Makers and those providing Digital Leadership in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry with the aim of spurring business and enable corporate leaders to innovate and provide better and more efficient services and products.

The Deputy Minister for MoCD, Ms. Ama Pomaa-Boateng (MP), who received the prestigious award on behalf of the Sector Minister, commended the organizers, INSTINCT WAVE, for a laudable and inspiring event to encourage individuals and institutions to continue to work hard for a resilient digital economy.

She said the GITTA event was one of the most celebrated ICT awards in recent times and might be arguably referred to as the Oscars of the ICT and Telecom industry, noting that, the ICT and Telecom industry had also cemented its position as the most important enabler of development.

Ms. Pomaa-Boateng said innovation remains the hallmark of entrepreneurship which provides huge opportunities for job creation and economic growth to build a robust digital economy.

She added that having a digitally literate workforce was necessary to enhance the widespread adoption and use of digital products and services by all Ghanaians irrespective of geographical location and economic status.

 According to the Deputy Minister, it was against this background that governments across the world continue to adopt digital technologies to fast-track their development, provide better and more efficient services, while better responding to the needs of the people.

She said the MoCD remains committed to the President’s digitalization agenda and would continue to work around the clock to transform Ghana’s economy.

To achieve this, she mentioned that the Ministry has implemented several initiatives including the annual Girls-in-ICT programme that provides a platform for Ghanaian girls in High schools to acquire digital skills and stir up interest in them to pursue ICT courses at higher educational levels.

"Over 9,000 girls have been trained so far since the inception of the initiative in 2012 in Ghana. We also have the cyber security version of the Girls in ICT which focuses on the Senior High Schools and has so far trained over 50,000 young women across the country", she stated.

She indicated that, in order to equip the youth with digital skills to manage the transforming economy and meet the labour market’s expectations of our growing digital economy, the Ministry facilitates ICT knowledge and skills acquisition by individuals and institutions.

She revealed that MoCD has established a state-of-the-art mini tech hub, called the Ghana Digital Centres Limited (GDCL) to harness the digital potential of Ghana by driving Digital innovation and entrepreneurship to create digital and ancillary jobs for the youth through the hosting of Tech firms and Digital Start-ups.

She noted that the Centre which commenced operations in 2017, has incubated 200 digital start-ups over the period, adding, that with funding from the World Bank, the Ministry set up an Innovation Centre at the GDCL made up of an Innovation Hub (iHub) and a mobile Applications Lab (mLab).

She mentioned the ministry’s effort to provide training in Digital marketing, call centre skills, basic IT, Microsoft office suite, BPO skills to disadvantaged youth in the Greater Accra Region at the Centre and the success story was being replicated in other parts of the country primarily to create more job opportunities for the youth irrespective of geographical location.

The CEO of Instinct wave, Mr Akin Naphtal in a short welcome address indicated that the GITTA awards is aimed at promoting and celebrating governments institutions, digital operators, Infrastructure Providers among others to share the progress of their successful innovations aimed at further enhancing the Ghanaian community as part of Government’s vision of building a robust digital economy.

“GITTA was created as a strategic platform to recognize, reward and showcase the pioneering ICT initiatives driving the Ghanaian private and public sectors with a vision of setting a benchmark to the sub-region’s wave of development in ICT”, he added.

According to him, GITTA will recognize organizations and individuals at the forefront of Digitization with innovative products and services that keep ICT sector exciting.

“The prestigious annual ICT gala awards night has inspired and promoted further development, growth, and innovation of the country’s ICT industry as a regional leader”, he said.