– The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) has trained visually impaired persons on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to complement the Digital Inclusion Project in the Techiman Municipality of the Bono East Region.
More than 450 people in 13 regions across the country, including 20 visually impaired, have benefited from the GIFEC project, which aimed to involve everyone in the digitization drive.
Mr Prince Ofosu Sefa, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GIFEC, said this at the climax of the Computer Basics training for the visually impaired through the Digital Transformation Centres at Techiman in the Bono East Region.
Among the 20 beneficiaries were teachers, students, and artisans who found it difficult in applying the ICT skills due to their physical conditions.
The participants were trained to use features for the visually impaired on the computer to send and receive emails, type, and use mobile phones to make and receive calls among other things.
Mr Sefa noted that ICT played a significant role in the development of society by facilitating communications, education, access to information, improved healthcare, social connectivity and community building, hence acquiring fundamental digital knowledge was a necessity.
Since the inception of GIFEC in 2014, about 1,010 sites have been built with 625 activated, he said, and that the remaining 1,006 sites would be completed this year to bring the total number of rural sites to 2,600.
Mr Kwasi Adu-Gyan, Bono East Regional Minister, said the government valued the use of ICT for community building and thus working to extend such services to the various communities to benefit all citizens.
Ms Diana Adjorlolo, tutor at the Akumfi Ameyaw Senior High School, and Mr Jeremiah Issahaku, teacher at the Techiman Senior High School, both vissualy impaired, commended GIFEC for the knowledge imparted and promised to apply it to their own benefits and that of others in their association.
GNA
RB/ABD
12 April 2024
Caption: pictures show the beneficiaries
