MTN Group and Ghana have signed an agreement to work together to support the government’s flagship ‘One Million Coders Programme.’
It is to equip young Ghanaians with artificial intelligence, coding and digital skills to drive the country’s digital transformation.
The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, Spain.
Mr Samuel Nartey George, the Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation and Mr Ralph Mupita, MTN Group President and CEO signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) to that effect.
The MOU is to explore areas for collaboration on what tthe Minister called the flagship initiative of the new administration of President John Mahama.
The Minister said, “We engaged with the MTN Group and expressed our desire for a partnership that will lead to fuel the capacity of young Ghanaians in the area of artificial intelligence, digital technology, data governance and cybersecurity.”
He said they have recognise that, as part of its 25th anniversary, MTN (Ghana) was making significant investments in Ghana.
He said the MTN building, donated to the government, would become one of the centres for excellence for artificial intelligence and software development.
“We are committed to backing MTN in this endeavour,” he said.
Mr Mupita thanked the Minister and his delegation for two days of constructive engagements and for choosing MTN as a trusted partner.
“We are very focused on understanding the strategy Ghana has and how we as MTN Group and MTN Ghana can support it,” he said.
He also lauded the government for its commitment in terms of creating an enabling environment for MTN to carry on the work they were doing, very humbly though, to support the building out of the digital ecosystem that would be a catalyst for growth and expansion and meet the socioeconomic objectives of the Ghanaian government.
Mr Mupita said given that around 3,000 languages were spoken across Africa, it was incumbent on Africans to ensure that they worked on their own large language models to develop the solutions made possible through generative AI.
“We must develop our own talent on the African continent; we must develop our own software engineers and we must be doing more around coding to enable us to all be future fit,” he said.
Mr Ebenezer Asante, MTN Group Senior Vice President for Markets, said MTN was delighted to be part of the initiative, which was closely aligned to MTN’s strategic intent.
“Between MTN and Ghana we will partner using common projects to advance the cause of African development,” he said.
The MoU follows the introduction in 2023 of the MTN Skills Academy in multiple MTN operating countries, including Ghana.
The MTN Skills Academy aims to provide access to digital and financial skills training across the continent.
The Academy provides a range of courses, including coding, web development, digital marketing and data analytics, with the aim of ensuring 60 per cent of youth and adults have at least basic proficiency in sustainable digital skills by the end of 2025.
GNA
