Bridging digital gender gap key to building digital economy – Deputy Communications Minister

Deputy Minister of Communication, Vincent Sowah Odotei, has affirmed government’s dedication to building a digital economy by ensuring that women gain equal access to technology, just like their male counterparts.

Addressing the media at a press briefing on Monday, October 8, 2018, Vincent Sowah Odotei highlighted the role of ICT in driving the socio-economic development of the country, elaborating on the relevance of ensuring the access of women to technology in sustaining Ghana’s economy.

“It is the policy of this government to build a digital economy. We need to ensure that we mainstream ICT and technology as a main driver of our socio-economic development in a sustainable manner. Most importantly, it is important we ensure that we bridge the digital gender divide. The gap between men and women who have access to and use technology as a way of life is growing not just in Ghana but throughout the developing world,” the Deputy Communications Minister stated.

He added that: “As a government, we have made it our policy that apart from providing infrastructure and granting universal access, we make sure that this divide both urban-urban and in the male-female is bridged.”

As part of government’s plans to ensuring the digitization of Ghana’s economy, the Ministry of Communication in collaboration with the World Wide Web Foundation, Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) as well UN Women will be organizing the 2018 Africa Summit on Women and Girls in Technology.

About 250 African technology innovators will gather at the Labadi Beach from Tuesday, October 9, to Thursday, October 11, 2018, to deliberate on solutions that will enable millions of African women and girls to benefit from access to technology and use their skills to build a better Africa for all.

The three-day event will feature presentations from young African female technologists as well as high-level discussions with a number of prominent African ICT policymakers and technology leaders.

Themed ‘Unlocking African digital future’, the summit will explore a range of relevant topic areas, with a focus on developing policies to advance access to affordable broadband, women’s rights online, digital education and skills, digital entrepreneurship.

Prominent personalities billed to attend the event are the Minister of Communications, Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, former Nigerian Minister of Communication Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson as well as Gender Technical Advisor at the Senegalese Ministry of Communication, Telecommunications, Posts and Digital Economy, Bitilokho Ndiaye.