Ghana Tech Lab, a digital innovation entity, has held a stakeholder engagement on leveraging mobile applications for job creation, especially among the youth.
Themed ‘Role of mobile application in transforming the local economy for job creation and economic development’, it sought to identify opportunities, key challenges and problems facing the mobile application industry as well as the skills required to satisfy the current mobile application market needs.
Andrew Akoto Addo of Ghana Tech explained that his outfit is committed to creating opportunities in the digital space for the youth by leveraging mobile applications skills development training to create employment opportunities.
He said with the ongoing digitalisation of the economy, the youth are creating jobs and finding opportunities in the digital space, particularly in areas such as information communication technology and mobile applications.
Launch of Ghana Startup Ecosystem Performance Ranking
As part of the Ghana Startup Ecosystem Mapping, the Ghana Startup Ecosystem Performance Ranking was introduced to measure the nature and level of the country’s startup space in 13 regions.
The six thematic pillars were Human Capital; Education and Training; Accessible Markets; Government and Regulatory Framework; Professionals, Infrastructure/Hubs; Access to Finance and Media, Women and Culture.
It aims to create increased awareness on the level of regional startup ecosystem, relevant stakeholders and the opportunities that can be accessed through an interactive platform.
It found that about 70 percent of startups in the country do not have social media pages nor any form of social media presence.
The findings further revealed social media use and website ownership by brands as follows: Wa – Social Media 50%; Website 40%, Tamale – Social Media 43%, Website 34%; and Sunyani – Social Media 66%, Website 25%;
Others are: Kumasi – Social Media 75%, Website 56%; Ho – Social Media 84%, Website 38%; Takoradi – Social Media 75%, Website 43%; Bolgatanga – Social Media 38%, Website 27; Cape Coast social media 21, website 21; WaleWale – Social Media 5%, Website 5%; Koforidua – Social Media 12%, Website 25% and Accra – Social Media 73%, Website 71%.
Finance pillar lead at the tech firm, Nanette Elorm Bonnie, said most startups believe the initial support they can get has to be monetary, which she says is not mostly the case. “There are institutions available that are toeing the line of giving them mentorship. That is one sector that financial institutions are looking at, mentoring them into how to properly structure their business. And you have some investors not deciding to work with startups because down the line of five years, the business is no more; the business doesn’t grow again so we have these financial institutions working with startups to train them on their continuity plan, giving them financial literacy training.”
Ghana Tech found out that despite the benefits of mobile applications and wireless devices in facilitating organisations to conduct businesses more efficiently, the organisations and their customers still lack adequate understanding of the values of mobile applications.
In all, more than 3000 companies, institutions, and firms were mapped, captured, and interacted with under the study.
