A 28-year-old- Ghanaian blogger and Development Manager, Dinah Recheal Blankson, has been adjudged the winner of the World Bank Blog4Dev 2019 competition for Ghana.
The annual essay contest, open to young Africans aged between 18 and 28, in 48 countries in sub Saharan Africa, aims at soliciting innovative ideas from brilliant African youth on pressing developmental challenges.
Ms Blankson is amongst 32 winners whose blogs were selected from 1,212 entries, for recognition at an awards ceremony on the sideline of this year’s World Bank Spring meeting in Washington DC, last month.
This year’s question for the competition was ‘What will it take to enhance the skills needed to prepare Africa’s youth for the digital economy and the future of work?’
Ms Blankson’s blog post was focused on exposing young Ghanaians to freelance websites like ‘upwork’ and online learning platforms like ‘udemy’ and ‘linked in learning’ as a way of enhancing the skills needed to prepare Africa’s youth for the digital economy and the future of work.
As part of her award, Ms Blankson would undertake an internship with the World Bank Group Office in Ghana and have her blog published on a newly dedicated blog platform entitled, “Youth Transforming Africa”.
Shedding more light on her winning blog post in an interview with the Ghanaian Times in Accra last week, she explained that the exposure to the online platforms would not only help Ghanaian youth appreciate the rapid evolution of digital skills, but also inspire them to encourage themselves to remain relevant in the digital job market.
This, she said would be impossible without support from giant internet providers in the form of low internet packages to make data affordable for easy internet access.
“Companies could also join in the challenge by providing generous scholarships or by waiving online tuition fees for young Ghanaians to keep up with the pace of technology,” she stated.
Private sector interventions with coordinated support from the government, she said, would be a big boost to lifelong learning and innovation among Ghanaian youth.
Ms Blankson averred that the young people in Africa had the solutions to almost all the continent’s challenges, for which reason they should be aided to leverage the fourth industrial revolution and develop the solutions.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
