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World Bank official tours Accra Digital Centre

The Country Director of the World Bank, Mr FranzDrees-Gross, yesterday toured theGhana Tech Laboratory and the Innovation Hub Centre, at the Accra Digital Centre, to take stock of projects in transforming the digital economy.

The centres are part of the E-Transform Project, under the Ministry of Communication, funded mainly by the World Bank with support from the Government of Ghana (GoG).

It is aimed at providing young entrepreneurs with the needed technical and innovative skills and start-ups that will turn them into problem solvers as the government sought to pursue its digital transformation agenda.

Accompanied by the Senior Financial Specialist at the World Bank, Mr Dhruva Sahai, Mr Drees-Gross visited departments of the Tech Lab such as the robotic and the media and machinery department and well as the Innovation Hub.

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Mr Drees-Gross after the tour, said he was impressed by what he had observed while stressing on the need for the country to invest more in technology and innovation, which formed part of the digitalisation agenda.

He added that equipping the youth with the needed technological and innovative skills was not enough,and urged the trainers at the centres tohelp the trainees set up their businesses.

According to the Country Director, the tour was important as it would help the World Bank in designing and financing other future projects in the country as it had been doing in the past.

Mr Drees-Gross explained that in as much as the country had potentials in many areas, there was an issue of digitalgap which the E-Transform Project sought to bridge.

The World Bank, Mr Drees-Gross said, was committed to providing Ghana and other developing countries the needed support in achieving its digital transformation agenda.

The Project Coordinator of the E-Transform Ghana project, Mr William AnnorAdu, said the Tech Labs and Innovation Hubs had been helpful as both had trained about 12,000 entrepreneurs since its inception in 2018.

He, however, noted that the only challenge had to do with how the training acquired by the trainees was impacting their lives.

He called for support from the general public to help the government achieve its digitisation agenda.

At the Innovation Hub, the Chief Executive officer (CEO) of Blue Space Financial Technology, a Ghanaian business financial technology integration company, Mr Samuel Amanor, noted that the Innovation Hub had helped in the development of the innovative ideas of individuals.

He reiterated the need to support the government in its digitisation agenda as the Hub had been able to help over 40 start-ups companies develop their own ideas and innovations.

BY BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY

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