MTN Ghana launches project to train women in app development

MTN Ghana Foundation and Women in Tech Africa have taken a step to get more women interested and involved in ICT with the introduction of the ‘MTN Girl Code’.

The project is focused on setting up an App Camp to train young ladies in mobile Apps development, Internet of Things (IOT) project development and animated video creation.

The maiden edition of the project which will run for three years will see the selection of 10 ladies from age 18 to 30, each from the Greater Accra, Central, Ashanti, and Northern Regions to undergo the training for a month.

Each set will be taken through a five-day intensive training beginning in Accra from the 31st of July to 4th August 2017.

Cape Coast will have the next training from 7th to 11th August, followed by Kumasi from 13th to 17th August. The final boot camp will be in Tamale from 21st to 25th August.

A Senior Manager at MTN Ghana Foundation, Georgina A. Fiagbenu says the project is to “empower girls to be able to show interest, to be able to acquire the skills needed, to be able to develop software, develop solutions that will help improve our life’s”.

She added that MTN seeks “to empower everybody to develop digital skills” and the project has been launched to help women develop the skills and interest.

Founder of Women in Tech Africa, Ethel Cofie said they decided to use just 40 ladies for the maiden edition because they wanted a small group adding that “we want depth, we’re looking for people with IQ and intelligence and also business ideas that will sell because we’re not only teaching mobile app development, we’re not only teaching programming, we’re also teaching business principles”.

She said the participants with the best three ideas from each boot camp will be awarded at the end of each week and they will also have the opportunity to be part of MTN’s Apps Challenge.

Interested ladies can apply at http://www.womenintechafrica.com/girlcode and await the selection process.