The Ghana Indian –Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (GI-KACE), an agency under the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization (MoCD), has held the 2023 Females in ICT (FEMITECH) Conference.
The conference themed, “Advocating for gender equality through ICT” was the institution’s mode of celebrating International Women’s Day.
Speaking at the event in Accra, the Sector Minister, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, noted that the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDGs) aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and that goal was being manifested in the 2023 FEMITECH conference.
“This is because what we are doing is to empower women and girls to take up leadership positions in Information and Communication Technology (ICT),” she added.
She noted that statistics from the United Nations showed that thirty per cent of women do not use the internet at all and it drives to over 40% in sub–Saharan Africa.
According to the Minister, the UN statistics also showed that women have only two per cent of positions in Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and other related emerging fields. These figures represent the current situation in Ghana perhaps even lower.
She expressed worry about the situation and called for much attention to these concerns, particularly the United Nation projections that by 2050, 75% of all jobs would be related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
“I have also been informed that one trillion has been lost in global GDP over the past decade by excluding women from the digital economy. We can turn this around by encouraging women to engage in technology and inculcate it in business, health education and all other aspects of their lives”, she noted.
The FEMITECH Conference was participated by students, policymakers and civil society groups. Some outstanding women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics were awarded for contributing to Ghana’s digital economy transformation and the ICT industry.
Richard Aniagyei, ISD
