The Bono East Regional Minister, Akwasi Adu Gyan, has called on the youth in the region to leverage on the pandemic-induced digital opportunity by developing state-of-the-art technological ideas that would foster trade in the region.

Given that Techiman is a big trade city, he noted that the youth can design online platforms that will enable traders to advertise their goods so that people from afar can purchase. The Regional Minister made this remark at the ‘Bono East Digital Jobs Fair’ held in Techiman in the Bono East Region.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has its own advantages and disadvantages. But the pandemic, if there’s anything that it has done positively for us in the IT world, it is to enable people to see that we are living in a global economy and that anything happening in any part of the world affects anybody anywhere in the world.

“Sitting here in Techiman and knowing very well that Techiman is a commercial city, there are a lot of opportunities. I cannot see why somebody in Techiman cannot have Techiman Market as an e-commerce platform to display their wares. We sell yams, maize, and almost everything here and if you have an e-commerce shop on the internet, there are people in Accra who need such products and would buy from you.”
Akwasi Adu Gyan

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AgricoHub, George Antwi, explained that the theme of the Jobs Fair: ‘Building resilient Creatives for the Job market’, focuses on how more jobs can be created through the digital space for the teeming youth.

Mr. Antwi highlighted that the pandemic has had a devastating impact on commercial activities. However, he noted that significant patronage of virtual platforms is more likely to drive up trade activities.

“You know COVID-19 has come and it’s created a lot of trading imbalances, but with the use of digital tools like social media and other local digital avenues, we are able to help our people who are into various forms of businesses to actually scale up their businesses”.
George Antwi

Digital training and learning important, post-COVID

Moreover, in an attempt to bridge the internet usage gap, the CEO of AgricoHub stated that his firm is running digital training programs for the youth in the Bono East Region.

“If you look at the regional divide of internet usage, you’ll realize that Bono East, we are not doing so well and we as a business innovation hub, we use entrepreneurship combined with Digitization and this means we are going to bridge the gap going forward.”
George Antwi

Mr. George Antwi also noted that a number of businesses as well as corporate organizations were invited as part of the Digital Job fair. He further revealed that some of the participants at the Job Fair were instantly offered employment by these firms.

Meanwhile, on Monday, 13^th September, 2021, the Chairman of the Governing Council at Accra Business School (ABS), Professor Kwame Omane-Antwi, charged the government to invest in the development and delivery of digital learning.

According to him, it is important to encourage digital learning, especially at a time where the COVID-19 pandemic poses a greater threat to education.

“It is important to note that digital learning has come to stay with us. The ideologies and negative perceptions of pessimists about online education prior to the emergence of Covid-19 have truly been challenged. It is therefore imperative to understand that the pandemic has generated potent dynamism and multiple possibilities to the education sector despite its disruptive nature, uncertainty and complexity.”
Prof. Kwame Omane-Antwi

Professor Omane-Antwi further urged policy-makers and all educational service providers to learn from the pandemic-induced challenge that confronted education, by making preparations for unforeseen times like that.