MTN Ghana Foundation has launched the MTN Skills Academy, the first of its kind in Ghana to train over 100,000 Ghanaian youth with digital skills by 2025.

The Academy will leverage technology and partnerships to build and scale up skills in a bid to bridge the digital skills and unemployment gap. The goal is to train unskilled youth in Ghana to build the needed skills for the future. The MTN Skills Academy comes to complement the ongoing USD25 million Ghana ICT Hub that focuses on investing, developing and nurturing Africa’s growing youth population.

Through the MTN Skills Academy, young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years will be taken through career guidance, digital and financial skills training, job placement requirements, work readiness and mentorship.

The MTN Ghana Foundation is collaborating with two partner ICT hubs in Greater Accra. The hubs will help in recruiting unemployed youth to sign up for the courses on the MTN Skills Academy program. They will also create a conducive environment for unemployed youth living in and around the selected areas to access the program online.

Speaking at the launch, Adwoa Wiafe, Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer at MTN Ghana underscored the need for all stakeholders to take a critical look at equipping and upskilling the youth with relevant digital skills.

She said, “Technology is changing the world of work and digital skills is now becoming indispensable to our everyday lives. Thus, it is important for us to be intentional about the way we train and equip the youth for the future. In this regard, we must not only focus on digital skills training but must also be interested in job creation as well as the provision of facilities such as skills hubs that will equip Ghana and Africa’s human capital with appropriate skills in the long term. That is why we have launched the MTN Skills Academy.”

Adwoa Wiafe further urged beneficiaries to leverage the platform to showcase their talents and skills to earn a livelihood and to position themselves to lead the progress of the country and the African continent.

Mr. Kingsley Boakye of the Ministry of Education commended MTN for the initiative. He said the establishment of the MTN Skills Academy is in line with the Ministry’s objectives of equipping Ghanaian youth with skills development. He also revealed that government was working on an ICT Education Policy that will soon be rolled out.

CEO of Mpontu Technologies, Dr. Stephane Nwolley, Guest Speaker at the event, stressed the critical role the MTN Skills Academy will play in equipping Ghana’s burgeoning youth with relevant digital skills to position themselves for the myriad of opportunities the digital world presents.

The event was attended by Executives of MTN Ghana, representatives of the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Educations Service, recruitment agencies, some beneficiaries of MTN Bright Scholarships and students of Mamfe Girls Senior High school, beneficiaries of a robotic center being constructed by MTN in the school.