GTUC to Host Cyber Security Training Programme

Ghana technology university college

Dr Edward Omane Boamah, Minister of Communications has said government was working closely with the Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative (CCI) to allow Ghana Technology University (GTUC) to build up comprehensive cyber security research and training.

He said GTUC was demonstrating the meaning of Information Communication Technology for development and government would work together with the university to fight against cyber threats to create congenial space for accelerated economic development.

Dr Boamah said this at the seventh congregation of the university for 230 graduates who received awards for pursuing masters programmes in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Supply Chain Management, Oil and Gas Management, Forensic Computing, Engineering and Management, Telecommunication Engineering and Management and Finance.

He said government was currently pursuing a university collaboration opportunity under a partnership with the CCI for GTUC to develop cyber security research and training.

“The details of this collaboration will be made clear after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with CCI on 20th of March 2014,” he said.

Dr Boamah commended tertiary institutions for training ICT professionals among the best in the world in the face of challenges confronting them.

He said the nation needed men and women with entrepreneurial spirits to be at the top echelons of corporate Ghana, and assured the graduands of government's readiness to continue to provide the space, sphere and support to enable start-ups like them grow and flourish.

The GTUC is also the host institution for the Ministry of Communications’ Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Training Programme which started in 2012.

The training programme was designed as part of the e-Ghana Project under the auspices of the Ministry of Communications to equip Master Trainers with the skills and competencies needed to manage and deliver training for Senior Associates and Entry level Professionals in various BPO areas.

The areas of concentration are; Customer Interaction, Data entry and Data processing, Data Conversion, Finance and Accounting, IT Technical Support and Medical Transcription

The Communications Minister observed that assessment of Ghana’s investment appeal for global ICT business revealed abundant opportunities for the BPO industry and that could only be realized when a critical pool of requisite ICT skills were produced to serve the industry.

He said the nation had a comparative advantage considering its location at the intersection of the equator and the Greenwich Meridian placed at the centre of the earth, and the use of the English language.

The Minister said government was also setting up IT Enabled Services Secretariat in collaboration with the World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation to establish an ultra modern BPO Centre in the heart of Accra near Kwame Nkrumah Circle.

Dr Osei Darkwa, President of GTUC, said the university has moved from a modest, humble and challenging beginning and was well positioned as a college of quality and distinction.

He said the college has established a technology research and innovation centre in line with its strategic direction for the year 2014, to provide cutting-edge programmes to promote world class research into technology geared towards solving national problems.