Sam George signs agreement with MTN
MTN Group and Ghana have signed an agreement to work together to support the government’s flagship ‘One Million Coders” programme to equip young Ghanaians with artificial intelligence, coding and digital skills to drive the country’s digital transformation.
On the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, Samuel Nartey George, Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation, and Mr Ralph Mupita, MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore areas for collaboration on what the Minister called the flagship initiative of the new administration of President John Mahama.
This was in a statement issued by MTN Ghana and copied to the Ghana News Agency.
The statement quoted the Minister as saying “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. MTN did not hesitate to offer to support the initiative.”
It further quoted the Minister as saying “We recognise that as part of its 25th anniversary, MTN (Ghana) is making significant investments in Ghana. The MTN building, donated to the government of Ghana, will become one of our centres for excellence for artificial intelligence and software development. We are committed to backing MTN in this endeavour.”
It said Mupita thanked the Minister and his delegation for two days of constructive engagements and for choosing MTN as a trusted partner, saying, “We are very focused on understanding the strategy Ghana has and how we as MTN Group and MTN Ghana can support it.”
It further quoted Mr Mupita as saying “We thank you for your commitment in terms of creating an enabling environment for us to carry on the work we are doing, very humbly though, to support the building out of the digital ecosystem that will be a catalyst for growth and expansion and meet the socioeconomic objectives of the Ghanaian government.”
The statement said, “Given that around 3000 languages are 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” quoting Mupita as saying “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.”
The statement also quoted Ebenezer Asante, MTN Group Senior Vice President for Markets, as saying “MTN is delighted to be part of the initiative, which is closely aligned to MTN’s strategic intent, adding “Between MTN and Ghana, we will partner using common projects to advance the cause of African development.”
It 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.”
It added that “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.”
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