Youth urged to venture into digital entrepreneurship

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has called on Ghanaian youth to show innovativeness in exploring opportunities in the technological world to enable them venture into the sector and become digital entrepreneurs.

It also advised the youth not to allow their geographical location or limited knowledge in ICT to become an obstacle in their quest to chart that path, saying one did not need to be a computer scientist before becoming a digital entrepreneur.

Ms. Dora Mawutor, an official of the MFWA made the call during an ICT Coaching and Mentoring Fair in Wa on Tuesday.

The Coaching and Mentoring Fair is an event organised by the MFWA in partnership with UK-based Global Partners Digital (GPD) and MTN Ghana under the theme: “Empowering Ghanaian Youth for ICT Entrepreneurship”.

Ms. Dora explained that the Coaching and Mentoring Fair was aimed at empowering the youth of Ghana to take advantage of the potential of ICTs to become ICT entrepreneurs.

She added that the fair sought to connect interested youth to experienced industry practitioners who would help nurture, coach and mentor them in their chosen field of ICT entrepreneurship.

Ms. Dora said for the past two years the MFWA had been engaged in a number of projects geared toward making the internet more accessible, affordable, open and secure for everyone to take advantage of.

She pointed out that the opportunities that ICTs presented and associated technologies such as the internet offered, were enormous and if well optimized could be deployed to improve their lives and transform Ghana’s economy.

She hinted that increasingly, world economies were moving from dependence on the industrial sector to the knowledge economy and that Ghana must not be left behind in this paradigm shift.

“But whether or not Ghana will catch up with the new order or stay behind largely depends on us – the present and future generations,” Ms. Dora said.

She noted that the Digital Youth Empowerment Project would therefore focus on inspiring young Ghanaians to empower themselves through ICTs to create jobs, come up with innovative apps to solve the day-to-day challenges in the different sectors of Ghana’s economy.

Ms. Dora said the MFWA believed in building synergies to make a greater impact in the vision, hence the teaming up with Ghana’s biggest network, MTN Ghana who shared in their vision of empowering the youth digitally in the ICT Coaching and mentoring fair.

She said a website known as the Digital Information Bank was also being developed which would serve as a hub for information on apps, trending innovations, digital tit-bits and an opportunity for interested persons to engage their coach or mentors online.

Mrs. Cynthia Lumor, Executive Director of MTN Ghana Foundation noted that MTN was supporting the initiative because it believed it was in their place to empower and nurture the youth to be abreast with the technological changes happening around them.

She expressed the hope that the results from the initiative and its impact would address the digital hunger of the economy.

Mrs. Florence Toffa, Director, Mobile Web Ghana and one of the resource persons took the participants who were drawn from tertiary institutions in Wa through how to develop a career in the ICTs sector.

Mr. Francis Dittoh, BBcom Official and a resource person enlightened participants on “Starting up ICT businesses: Challenges and the Way Forward – the case of BBCom Virtual College and BBCom ICT Consulting Services.