The Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George is today taking the entire Cabinet of President John Mahama’s government to a two-day residential AI bootcamp to learn how artificial intelligence can help their respective ministries to achieve their targets faster and more efficiently.
The Minister disclosed this in an interview with journalists on the side lines of the launch of the Google AI Community Centre in Accra.
Techfocus24 had sought to know how government institutions were adopting AI and what the Ministry was doing to drive that.
In response to that question, Sam George said that as private sector works on AI adoption, it is important for government do same, and for that reason “President John Mahama has granted me permission to take the entire Cabinet and their AI focal persons on a two-day AI bootcamp, which is something that has never happened anywhere in Africa if not the world.”
According to him, the bootcamp will allow the Cabinet members to get a better appreciation of AI and how it can help their respective ministries achieve better results.
He explained that his ministry has, in collaboration with the UNDP and the academia, developed several use cases of AI for every ministry, and that is going to form the KPIs for all the ministries in 2026, adding that a cadre of focal persons have been trained in all the ministries, and they will form the basis for benchmarking.
Sam George a communique will be issued from the bootcamp, which will be presented to the Finance Ministry spelling what kind of infrastructure each ministry needs to be able to meet their KPIs. The finance ministry will then make provision in next year’s budget for the AI infrastructure needs of each ministry to enable them rollout their AI strategies.
According to the Minister, each ministry will also get human capital support through the ongoing One Million Coders Program, in which several civil and public servants at the various ministries are being trained in AI and several other digital skills.
