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Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister of Communication and Digitalisation, says government will set up the Ghana Digital Innovation Fund to provide grants as seed investment to innovators.

The Fund, under the Ghana Digital Centre Limited (GDCL), will unlock more investment capital for digital and technology-based Startups and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country. 

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful announced this on Thursday at the filth anniversary of GDCL in Accra.

She said the Government through its partnership with MTN and the World Bank was working to expand the Centre with new state-of-the-art and infrastructure as well as retooling the Regional Innovation Centres across the country into mini-tech hubs.

The initiatives, the Minister stated, were part of the Government’s efforts to bridge the digital divide by ensuring that Ghanaian youth had access to digital skills and jobs across the country.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said since its establishment the Centre had boosted job creation with over 5,000 direct and indirect jobs created so far.

"The Centre has enhanced the drive for knowledge-led socio-economic growth as well as Information, Communication Technology skills for self-sufficiency," she said. 

The Minister said the Centre had allocated 100 per cent of its space and achieved 100 per cent occupancy and had 35 technology and digital companies, including Information Technology Enabled Services, Business Process Outsourcing Companies, Local Tech SMEs and Start-ups. 

She encouraged industry players to support the Centre to design and deliver tailored digital training for staff to increase the uptake of technology to enhance service delivery.

Mr Kwadwo Baah Agyemang, the Chief Executive Officer, GDCL, said the Centre launched the Tertiary Digital Innovation Programme to equip tertiary graduates with the knowledge to transition from school to industry in response to the growing youth unemployment.

The initiative, he said, was supported by Make-IT in Africa, a programme implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of EconomicCorporation and Development.

He said the programme would select and onboard graduates, who at the point of completion from universities had developed a concept for a technology startup, which they had the desire to pursue with the needed support.

To be eligible for the programme, he said participants must be a final year student or a recent graduate of University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana Communication and Technology University, and Academic City University College.