The Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations has distributed over 8,500 out of more than 20,000 laptops to institutions and centres to support the nationwide rollout of the One Million Coders Programme (OMCP).
The One Million Coders Programme is a major government initiative led by the ministry, with the aim to equip young Ghanaians with coding, AI and other digital skills for employment opportunities in the global digital economy.
The programme, launched nearly a year ago by President John Dramani Mahama at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, began with a pilot phase targeting 500 trainees across four centres in Accra, Kumasi, Sunyani and Bolgatanga.
However, overwhelming public interest saw nearly 94,000 applications received within 48 hours, leading to the expansion of the pilot to train about 1,000 participants, and the eventual suspension of the programme for re-regrouping.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony held at the ministry’s conference room on Friday, the minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, said lessons from the pilot phase have helped shape the national rollout to ensure the programme delivers real skills and employment opportunities for beneficiaries.
Under Phase One, the programme will operate in 130 learning centres across all 16 regions, each equipped with 50 customised laptops configured for coding training. The rollout is being implemented in collaboration with key agencies, including the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), Ghana Digital Centres Limited and the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT.
Twelve (12) universities, including the University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and University of Cape Coast, are part of the first phase of the rollout and will run separate centres in addition to the 130 community ICT centres.
The minister also acknowledged private sector support, particularly from MTN Ghana, which contributed US$2 million to procure 2,000 additional laptops for selected universities participating in the programme.
The Ministry indicated that the application portal will soon reopen, allowing previous applicants to continue their registration while new applicants complete a simplified verification process linked to the Ghana Card system.
Government has also recruited 130 constituency-level coordinators to manage the centres and provide technical support for trainees, with plans to expand the programme to cover all constituencies nationwide in subsequent phases of the program.
The Minister said 50,000 slots have been allocated specifically to persons with disability, adding that the gender and social protection ministry will be working with the federation for the disabled to ensure that their members benefitted from that allocation.
The One Million Coders Programme is expected to contribute significantly to Ghana’s digital transformation agenda by preparing a skilled workforce capable of participating in emerging opportunities in artificial intelligence, software development and remote digital jobs.
Sam George said the ministry is actively looking for job opportunities for the graduates of the programmes, saying that so far, an MoU has been signed with a private sector institution which is ready to provide 100,000 remote jobs for graduates, and there is ongoing discussions with the Chamber for Business Outsourcing Services to absorb an additional 100,000 graduates.
