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Girls encouraged to pursue ICT careers

Mrs Linda Nyarko Yeboah, a women’s empowerment advocate, has urged girls to pursue Information Communication Technology (ICT) careers to tackle low representation of females in the technology field.

“The world is fast evolving and digitisation has become the order of the day now, so if we do not encourage girls and women to develop interest in ICT, we will come face to face with the reality of a very low workforce of women in the ICT sector, and this is not what we want.”

Mrs Yeboah in an interview with the Ghanaian Times in Accra yesterday said “women must not be afraid of technology because it is for all of us. Taking up careers in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) must be of interest to every woman because nothing is impossible to achieve”.

According to her, though there were few Ghanaian women excelling in the field of ICT, more efforts must be made by government and various organisations in ensuring that no woman was left behind in this era of digitisation.

Mrs Yeboah mentioned that acquiring digital skills was necessary, irrespective of gender or age, because ICT could be a major accelerator of socio-economic development.

While imploring girls and women to focus on ICT, she called on government to create the enabling environment by providing the necessary resources to support women in their quest to acquire digital skills.

Bridging the gap in ICT education, Mrs Yeboah said, was highly possible and necessary.

“Making ICT education more inclusive is very possible but cannot happen just within a day, especially in our part of the world. Interest in ICT must also be developed before help can be accepted and extended to more people,” she added.

Mrs Yeboah commended the Ministry of Communications and Digitisation for its Girls in ICT initiative and other programmes that sought to encourage females to consider ICT when choosing a career.

She explained that some girls did not develop interest in ICT because they could not afford smart phones, and even those who had smart phones could not always access the internet because of the high cost of internet bundle.

Mrs Yeboah indicated that other females could afford smart mobile phone devices and laptops, but unstable telecommunication networks in their areas prevented them from harnessing their digital skills.

BY RAISSA SAMBOU

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