Board Chairman of the MTN Ghana Foundation, Prof Franklyn Manu, has sounded a strong warning that Ghana’s digitalization drive risks stalling if urgent attention is not given to developing skilled professionals to drive the process.
According to him, the country’s approach has been tilted too heavily towards acquiring equipment and gadgets, while failing to adequately train the people who should operate, manage, and innovate with technology.
Speaking during MTN Ghana’s “Bright Conversations” series in Accra, Prof. Manu stressed that Ghana cannot boast of even 100 lecturers or PhDs in core areas such as information technology and computer science.
He lamented that the country continues to invest little into training such professionals despite government’s rhetoric about fast-tracking digitalization.
Humanities and business still dominate
Highlighting what he described as a structural weakness in Ghana’s education system, Prof. Manu observed that the majority of course offerings in tertiary institutions remain dominated by humanities and business-related disciplines.
This, he said, has left science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programmes underfunded and under-enrolled, starving the country of the very talent needed to sustain its digital transformation.
Government expenditure patterns, he argued, reinforce the problem as resources are disproportionately tilted towards the humanities and business.
“The result,” he noted, “is that many graduates today are technologically challenged and struggle to function in modern organizations.”
Graduates with degrees but limited digital skills
Prof. Manu expressed concern that many Ghanaian graduates, despite holding university degrees, can barely make effective use of computers.
At best, he said, they are only proficient in social media use, but remain unable to apply digital tools in the discharge of their professional duties.
This technological illiteracy among the educated class, he explained, undermines productivity in workplaces and weakens the country’s competitiveness.
“Taking pride in digital competence should be part of modern education, yet many of our graduates are unable to handle even basic computer-related tasks,” he lamented.
Digitalization drive weakened by lack of trainers
While commending the government’s initiative to train one million youth in coding, Prof. Manu raised serious concerns about the feasibility of the programme given Ghana’s limited pool of qualified trainers.
“The critical question is: who is going to teach them?” he asked. With so few experienced professionals in the system, he doubted whether the ambitious project could be achieved within the timelines envisaged.
According to him, the conversation about technology must extend beyond gadgets and coding targets to include the “people dimension.”
Without qualified trainers and consistent strategies, Ghana risks producing more graduates who lack practical digital competence, further stalling progress.
ICT education without laboratories
Prof. Manu also criticized the state of ICT education at the secondary school level, where many students are compelled to write ICT examinations without access to functional laboratories.
With most schools lacking the necessary infrastructure, students are forced to learn ICT theory without practical exposure, a situation he described as “unacceptable for a country that claims to be pursuing digitalization.”
Although the MTN Ghana Foundation has built ICT laboratories in selected schools and communities, Prof. Manu admitted that the scale of the problem is far beyond what one corporate entity can fix.
He therefore called for a nationally consistent strategy to drive digital skills development across all levels of education.
MTN Foundation’s role in bridging the gap
In addition to ICT labs, Prof. Manu said the MTN Ghana Foundation continues to support entrepreneurship and digital empowerment initiatives, including the Enterprise Support Programme which funds and trains small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The Foundation also partners with youth summits and digital skills training programmes designed to build practical competencies, improve financial literacy, and drive digital inclusion.
These interventions, he noted, are helping to create jobs and contribute to a more resilient economy.
However, he acknowledged that the impact remains limited when compared to the national scale of the digital deficit.
Call for reorientation in national priorities
Prof. Manu concluded by urging policymakers to rethink national priorities and channel more resources into science, technology, and digital education.
He emphasized that Ghana’s digitalization agenda cannot succeed without a strong cadre of trained professionals who can innovate, teach, and lead in the sector.
“Technology is not just about machines; it is about people. Without investing in people, our digital ambitions will remain a mirage,” he warned.
