Business owners in the Upper West Region are being encouraged to maximise the use of basic social media and other technological tools. This will help them grow their businesses and expand their reach to customers particularly during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Despite the potential of social media, websites, and other technological tools to advertise businesses to reach global audiences, some business owners in the Upper West Region are still unable to utilise them.
According to the Executive Director of the Yison Tech Hub, Mr Issahaque Serekpera Naa, this is because business owners are not tech-savvy and cannot deploy the tech tools in a way that can benefit them.
To remedy the situation, Ghana Tech Lab, with support from the Mastercard Foundation and the Ministry of Communication has partnered with Yison Tech Hub, a local technological and innovation hub to train 30 young people in the area of website development and the application of basic social media tools.
“There is a gap when it comes to web development in the region. We realised that in the Upper West Region’s ecosystem, most businesses are not tech-savvy. What I mean is that they are not on websites and even basic social media is a problem.”
“People tend to see that businesses that are located in the Upper West Region are for the region only but now things have changed, you can be doing business here [Upper West Region] and globally, everyone can access it,” he explained.
The training began after a consultative stakeholders meeting. The meeting focused on “the role of web technology for the digital transformation of the local economy for job creation and economic development in the Upper West Region”. The meeting was also to solicit local solutions to local problems. Participants for the meeting were drawn from the public sector, private sector, NGOs, and CSOs as well as the media.
A participant, Francisca Tangbori, explained that after the training, she will be able to start her own business and support herself rather than wait for employment from the government.
After the 6-week website development training, participants will be attached to organisations within the Upper West Region for a 10 week incubation period.
Story filed by Mark Smith.
