The Minister of Communications, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has urged African leaders to accede to the gender digital divide and engineer solutions for the development of the continent.
“Let us also recognize the continuing existence of a yawning digital divide particularly, the gender digital divide, with many women still shut out of this digital revolution. We must ensure that technological advances do not further exacerbate inequalities that marginalize women, persons with disability, rural communities and the elderly.”
She said this at the opening ceremony of the International telecommunications Union Regional Development Forum (ITU RDF) held in Ghana under the theme: “ICT4SDGs: Towards the implementation of WTDC-17 outcomes”.
The forum which aims at providing opportunities for ITU members across the sub region to share achievements and experiences whilst building digital economies to foster innovation in Africa was attended by ITU member states, ITU-D sector members, regulators, associates, academia, and other stakeholders.
Madam Ursula Owusu also noted the need to equip the African youth with IT knowledge to position them for opportunities.
“We need to build and integrate a resilient broadband infrastructure across the continent, provide the requisite IT knowledge and skills to our people, especially the youth and position them to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the multibillion applications and software industry,” she said.
The minister was optimistic that the current IT development ongoing in Ghana with focus on rural penetration, the existing gaps in ICT access can be bridged by 2020.
Source: 3news.com | Ghana]]>
