At a glance
The Ghanaian government is confronted with the challenge of offering its young and rapidly growing population prospects for economic and social development. Despite strong economic growth, economic development cannot keep pace with the increasing demand for productive, decent employment. The main challenges in the labor market are widespread underemployment and precarious working conditions, especially among youth and young adults. In addition, Ghana is characterized by significantly unequal income and tenure statuses. Women are systematically discriminated against the access to the labor market. For example, income opportunities are often higher in male-dominated occupations and career advancement opportunities for women are generally lacking.
Start-ups and small enterprises form the backbone of Ghana’s economy, but growth prospects in the informal and formal economy are increasingly hampered by low productivity and competitiveness, especially in the context of global trade. The reasons for this are manifold: the majority of the predominantly young workforce and job seekers, as well as business owners, miss sufficient professional and entrepreneurial skills as well as access to finance.
The rapid arrival of digital technologies is opening up numerous new market opportunities for existing companies and potential start-ups, but also towards challenges of the global competitive market. A large part of Ghana’s workforce is still employed in agricultural sector, which will be exposed to increasing risks from climate change in the future. Therefore, the task of digital transformation in Ghana is to build on existing structures and address old as well as new problems using digital technologies. To support the partner government in meeting these challenges, the Digital Transformation Center Ghana was opened in 2020. Here, as well as in all other regions of the world, Digital Transformation Centers are placed alongside our partners to promote self-determined and human-centered development in the digital realm. They support local digital ecosystems in developing digital solutions to everyday challenges and promote innovation, technical skills, education, and access to the internet.
Our approach
The Digital Transformation Center Ghana works with a broad spectrum of political, private-sector and civil-society partners. This ensures that the opportunities and risks of the digital transformation are equally addressed. This approach creates conditions not only for elites but also for wider sections of the Ghanaian population to benefit from digital innovations – especially women, young people and people with disabilities.
Therefore, the work of the Digital Transformation Center focuses primarily on advising political decision-makers and promoting digital skills in rural areas via a decentralized hub network. The goal is to reduce the digital divide between cities and rural areas. In doing so, the center builds on the experience and results of the Make IT initiative in Ghana. It also integrates ongoing collaboration with the BMZ projects FAIR Forward and #eSkills4Girls.
Following ongoing projects and with a view to country-specific needs in the digital sector, the Digital Transformation Center Ghana offers training, mentoring support and networking in the following core areas:
- Access to digital technologies in rural areas
- Trend and future technologies (FAIR Forward – Artificial Intelligence for All).
- Digital entrepreneurship (Make-IT in Africa)
- Digital inclusion of women and girls (#eSkills4Girls)
- Digital policy strategy and advice
- Support for the digitalization of various sectors
Our goal
The Digital Transformation Center Ghana aims to support political partners in reducing the digital divide between rural and urban areas. To this end, digital skills trainings are offered to the relevant target groups of women, girls, youth, and people with disabilities in rural regions. The center advises political partners on the formulation of national policy programs and concepts, laws, regulations, and strategies for the digital economy and digital transformation in Ghana.
