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27.05.2017 Education

Queen of Peace SHS wins Ghana Youth Mobile App Contest

By GNA
Queen of Peace SHS wins Ghana Youth Mobile App Contest
27.05.2017 LISTEN

Accra, May 27, GNA - The Queen of Peace Senior High School, Nadowli, Upper West Region, has won the 2017 edition of the "Ghana Youth Mobile App Contest".

The contest was organised by the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (KACE) and supported by the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC).

The two representatives of the School; Salifu Zulifaru and Nyaaba Noel Emmanuel built an app called High School GH that contained detailed information on all senior high schools (SHSs) in the country to assist junior high school leavers in their school selection and placement.

Yendi Secondary School placed second, Keta Senior High Technical School, third, Krobo Girls Senior High School, fourth and Navrongo Secondary school fifth.

The Ghana Youth Mobile App is an initiative by the KACE to reach out to the youth especially SHS students in the less privileged parts of the country to equip them with the skills in generating mobile apps.

So far, about 500 students and 50 teachers from 10 schools in the Upper West, Upper East, Northern, Eastern and Volta Regions benefitted from the training.

Their demonstration of the app earned them maximum points from the judges as they were scored based on quality of the app code, creativity and originality of the idea, relevance to community, and the overall appeal and presentation, taking home mobile phones each and laptops for their school.

Speaking at the event in Accra, Mr Vincent Sowah Odotei, a Deputy Minister of Communications, said government had a key mandate to make the youth part of the ICT enabled production and not just consumers.

'We don't want any youth to be left out in the digital revolution, so Government would work towards a digital intrusion.

'I want to assure you that Government is committed to providing the enabling environment, infrastructure, space, and connectivity through community information centres.

"Government will revive the 270 community information centres and create a digital centre in Accra to give opportunity to the youth, especially from the rural areas to be exposed to the technological space,' he said.

Mr Odotei said: 'We live in a smart world and every aspect of our lives is driven by technology and we cannot take away technology because it gives the youth an equal measure of job opportunities and to have a career to make life better, and Government is however determined to create a digitally literate country."

Mr Philip Prempeh, the Business Development Manager, Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) commended KACE for the initiative which sought to empower the youth in ICT right from SHS, especially in the rural areas.

He said current global trends showed that one of the most credible alternatives to grow any economy, was the ICT sector; because it could sustainably empower the youth and create room for innovation to enhance productivity.

'Almost every field of employment now depends on technology, and technology has extended into new intellectual and commercial fields," he added.

Mr Prempeh said GIFEC as part its programme for this year would be supporting ICT programmes to train market women, artisans and graduates, all in a bid to bring them closer to the technological world.

Ms Sarah Shabbir, Cultural Attaché, the United States Embassy in Accra, said: 'I think the young people of today have the power to really change the society even though access to technology is limited for many of them, but through connecting with each other they generate great ideas and implement them and I think Ghana Is going to be ahead in a very short future because of these technologies."

She advised the students to see all the options that were available to them because many of them were considering a tertiary education, whether polytechnic or university, possibly abroad, which they should because they were extremely brilliant.

'It is not an easy thing to go abroad to study, but there are students in Ghana who are doing amazing work overseas in research institutions.

"In fact, out of the African continent, Ghana sends the second highest number of students to the united states after every country, except Nigeria', she said.

Ms Shabbir said the Embassy had an 'Education USA Centre' that advised students and guided them through the steps to study in the US.

She noted that the Embassy did not however offer any financial resources to students.

The winners including their supervisor, Naale Gerald Tietaa, expressed utmost excitement upon winning the ultimate price.

They told the Ghana News Agency that although the competition was stressful and tiring in the beginning, but their hard work paid off and expressed the hope that their app would serve its purpose and help develop the country at large.

GNA

By Iddi Yire, GNA

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