50 women in Wa West undergo training on Digital Skills

Digital Skills training for some fifty (50) women in Wa West District of the Upper West Region has kick-started in earnest.

The project, which is being supported by the German Agency for International Cooperation, aims at empowering rural women in the informal sector in the use of Digital Skills to promote their businesses in Dorimon and Siriyiri.

It is an undeniable fact that women are heavily underrepresented in the digital world, particularly in rural settings where access, cost, and other socio-cultural factors limit girls’ and women’s ability to engage with new technologies. 

Digital literacy is an insurmountable obstacle to being part of the digital arena, and two-thirds of the 700 million adults who are illiterate are women. As economies are going more digital, the situation could get worse, if girls and women are not empowered to fit the digital world. 

Available evidence indicates that the outbreak of COVID-19 which impacted negatively on businesses globally also had a severe impact on agribusinesses in Ghana in several ways. Many businesses and individuals are confronted with the reality of adopting digital platforms to promote their businesses.

Unfortunately, many small business owners especially women in the Upper West Region are unable to adapt to this emerging trend due to their lack of digital skills.  This situation therefore further deprives them of using digital tools to boost their basic economic activities to enable them to increase their household incomes. 

It is in this regard that, GIZ in partnership with Noni Hub, a tech and entrepreneurship organization established with the passion to create wealth and jobs by providing the youth access to world-class digital skills and business development support, brings to rural communities this innovative project called Pog'ba in Digital Skills. This project is seen as a bridge to the rising gender disparities in the digital space and a business booster for rural women in the Dorimon/Siriyiri Communities of the Wa West District of the Upper West Region. 

The rationale for the project is to imbibe in our rural women basic digital skills to be able to improve their customer outreach and increase profitability. The project is covering nine modules; Introduction to Digital Devices, Internet and Mobile Applications, Introduction to Social Media, Using Social Media in Business, Digital Content Creation and Distribution, Using Mobile Money in Business, Digital Empowerment, Digital Financial Management, and Digital Safety and Security. The project is going to last for two months with two cohorts, one in Dorimon and the other in Siryiri communities.

The project is aimed at considering a total of 50 businesswomen engaged in economic activities in the Weaving, Dressmaking, Hairdressing, Selling of food, petty trading, and the farming industry.  The first cohort in Dorimon consisting of 26 trainees is ongoing and the second batch is set to follow in March with 24 trainees.

According to the program manager for Noni Hub, Salihu Mohamed Awal, "In motivating trainees and to ensure concentration, they are provided with snack, lunch, and stipends each day. We believe this will sustain their interest and help boost their edge to learn."

He also expressed his gratitude to all stakeholders for seeing the importance of this consultative meeting and scheduling time to grace and share ideas on measures and strategies that will help them sustain their gains and create more opportunities for rural women to benefit.

The representative of Dorimon Naa (chief of Doraemon) Issac Dong Yendau on his part, also expressed his gratitude to Noni Hub for the opportunity offered the women of his traditional area in digital skills training as the world today, according to him, is going paperless.

He however appealed to the organization to continue with the second phase of the training after the completion of the first phase while also appealing to the beneficiaries not to be selfish but rather share the knowledge impacted them by Noni Hub to their colleagues who did not have the opportunity to join the training.

The beneficiaries thanked Noni Hub for the opportunity given them, adding that they had been enlightened to come to realize how they were doing their business in darkness since they now know how to sell their businesses on social media by the use of their mobile phones.