By Patrick Biddah
Two former Municipal Chief Executives, Dr Hon Janet Tulasi of the Ga East Municipal Assembly and her colleague, Adwoa Amoako of the Tema West municipality, have jointly set up a technological training center for the youth.
The center which is located at Ashaley Botwe in the Adentan municipality of the Greater Accra region, is to recruit youth from the ages of 19 years and above in the area for digital skills training .
The center, which is equipped with state- of – the- arts tool, is to help these youth harness the opportunities in the digital space for employable benefits.
Under the theme: Youth empowerment through entrepreneurship, digital skills and social intervention; the role of Strategic Alliance and AYA Digital Technology Hub, other centers will be opened in all the 16 regions of the country.
Two Non-Governmental Organizations , Strategic African Network (SAN) and AYA Digital Technology Hub with each foundered by Janet Tulasi and Adwoa Amoako respectively, is jointly operating the center .
Speaking at the inauguration of the center on Wednesday, February 8, 2023 , the founder of the Strategic Alliance Networks, Dr Janet Tulasi, who is the former MCE for the Ga East Municipal Assembly, indicated that the center is targeted at women empowerment through skills training and community development.
The Strategic Alliance Network( SAN) , she emphasized works in partnership with both state and private sector companies to actualize their corporate social investments in Ghana and this is to see women get empowered.
“Our goal is to help in directing aid to communities where they are needed and likely to create the desire impact “, she noted .
The need for the focus on women, she therefore explained is to tap into the role they play in ending poverty by engaging in small and micro enterprises at the grassroots level .
The opening of the center she, however, emphasized, is to give equal access to education of women in skills development in order to get them achieve the purpose of ending poverty.
In spite of this , Dr Tulasi expressed the view that there Is also the need to look at the Debt Exchange Programme Carefully and how much of an impact it can have on women empowerment.
“ We need to be certain in our minds on how this DDE Programme is going to address poverty, create jobs, secure livelihoods, social security and improve human development. Otherwise SGD Goals will keep receding further, “she warned.
Enumerating some of the courses the women and youth would be taken through, the Chief Executive Officer of AYA Digital Technology, Adwoa Amoako, revealed that they would be trained on Web Development , Data Science and Analytics as well as Digital marketing among others.
Depending on each programme a student, according to her, will be trained between two and six months
The consequences of youth unemployment, she noted are very dire which deserves to be given critical attention.
“Presently , about 300,000 young people enter the Ghanaian labour market every year ( according to a 2016 research findings of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations) , she indicated.
Less than 6,000 of the figure, representing 3% she made reference to are usually engaged in the formal sector leaving the 97% to survive in the informal sector or outright unemployment.
In view of the aforementioned statistics, she gave the hope that AYA Digital Technology Hub was set up to provide the platform for training the youth in ICT development and entrepreneurship in Ghana to fill the gap in the informal sector.
