The government has set a target to train 400,000 Ghanaians this year under the flagship One Million Coders Programme to boost digital literacy, employment and innovation.
This follows the successful pilot of the programme last year, during which 859 beneficiaries received training.
Mr Samuel Nartey George, Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovation, disclosed this during a working visit by Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang to the Ministry on Thursday.
He said 20,000 custom-built laptops had already been procured, with plans to roll out training in 100 constituencies by the end of the first quarter of 2026.
“Our goal is not just to train a million people, but to ensure that after training they can secure employment or remote jobs with internationally recognised certifications,” he said.
The One Million Coders Programme, a key initiative under President John Dramani Mahama’s RESET agenda, aims to train one million Ghanaians over four years in coding and ICT skills to prepare them for employment, remote work and participation in the digital economy.
The Minister highlighted ongoing partnerships with global technology firms, including Google, MTN, Huawei and Telecel, to provide internationally recognised certification and improve the employability of beneficiaries.
“Given the financial constraints, we reached out to Big Tech to support the President’s flagship programme, which has been very well received,” he said.
Mr George also outlined reforms and projects underway within the Ministry and its agencies, including a comprehensive review of the legislative framework, noting that many existing ICT laws were outdated and no longer fit for purpose.
He said 15 new and amended bills, covering electronic communications, cybersecurity, data protection and digital economy development, were at various stages and would soon be presented to Cabinet following stakeholder consultations.
To curb waste in government ICT procurement, the Minister said the Ministry was collaborating with the Public Procurement Authority and the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) to prevent duplication of systems across ministries and agencies, safeguard sensitive national data and ensure value for money.
“We’ve asked the Public Procurement Authority not to grant approval for any government IT-related procurement without reference to NITA, so that existing systems can be leveraged instead of paying for them twice, while also protecting critical national data,” he said.
Mr George said the Ministry was also advancing Ghana’s artificial intelligence strategy in collaboration with the KNUST Responsible AI Lab and local industry partners, with the national AI strategy expected to be launched by the end of the first quarter.
On institutional reforms, he said the Ministry had adopted a fully paperless internal system, enabling documents to be processed digitally from receipt to approval.
Other achievements include improvements at Ghana Post, which delivered more than 100,000 biometric passports in under six months last year; the rollout of a fully digital system for inter-ministerial correspondence; and efforts to transition the .gh domain to state ownership to strengthen national digital identity.
