An initiative aimed at bridging gender, digital, and exposure gaps to connect young women to ICT-related jobs was launched in Accra yesterday.Dubbed the DigiVibe initiative, it also seeks to empower female-led businesses with digital skills, confidence, and career opportunities to thrive in Ghana's digital economy.It is being implemented by the German-led AFOS Foundation and funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through its"Decent Work for a Just Transition" initiative.Speaking at the launch yesterday, the Director-General of the National Service Authority (NSA), Mr Felix Gyamfi, pledged the Authority's full support for the initiative, describing it as a strategic programme that aligns with the NSA's vision of placing national service personnel-particularly women-in decent, skill-enhancing roles within the private sector ICT industry.He emphasised that the Authority's focus this year was to deploy more service personnel into private sector roles, where they can acquire essential skills and contribute meaningfully to national development.Mr Gyamfi noted that the initiative's focus on supporting women-led businesses reflected the government's commitment to gender equality and inclusive economic participation, in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)."The government wants to promote women-led businesses as a form of a drive towards attaining their SDG goals… If National Service at all can do anything about this, we will be very proud to do it," he affirmed.He assured stakeholders that unlike in the past, when projects faced bureaucratic delays, the NSA would ensure the smooth rollout and success of DigiVibe."If we push people into any of the projects, we will make sure that they stay to embark on these projects.
And I am totally and wholly backing this project for its total success," he added.Explaining the scope of the project, the Project Lead at the AFOS Foundation, Ms Hanna Schlingmann, said DigiVibe was more than a training programme-it was a transformative platform aimed at preparing young women for active roles in Ghana's digital economy.She stated that the initiative targets over 1,000 female students and graduates, addressing what she described as the "D-E-G gaps"- the Digital gap, Exposure gap, and Gender gap-through upskilling, mentoring, consultancy, and job placement.She mentioned that, one of the flagship features, the SHE Consort initiative, would train selected female graduates to serve as junior consultants for small and medium enterprises, enabling them to design affordable digital solutions while gaining real-world experience."We believe in creating a win-win: businesses receive affordable digital solutions, and the graduates gain critical exposure and practical experience," Ms Schlingmann said.She added that the programme included a mentoring scheme to guide at least 800 young women through their first year of national service or early career phase, alongside a job placement portal to ensure quality employment outcomes."Over the next two years, we aim to place more than 400 women in ICT-related jobs, engage over 45 companies, and turn at least 270 graduates into junior consultants," she said BY STEPHANIE BIRIKORANG
