Ghana and MTN Group have signed a deal to promote the government’s flagship “One Million Coders Program,” which aims to give young Ghanaians digital, coding, and artificial intelligence skills to drive the nation’s digital growth.
Ghana’s Minister of Communication, Digital Technology, and Innovation, Samuel Nartey George, and MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to discuss potential areas of cooperation. The signing occurred during the Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, which was held from March 3 to 6, 2025. The program is considered a key initiative under the new administration of President John Mahama.
“We engaged with the MTN Group and expressed our desire for a partnership that will lead to fuel the capacity of young Ghanaians in the area of artificial intelligence, digital technology, data governance and cybersecurity,” the minister said, adding that MTN did not hesitate to support the initiative.
“We recognise that, as part of its 25th anniversary, MTN is making significant investments in Ghana. The MTN building, donated to the government of Ghana, will become one of our centres for excellence for artificial intelligence and software development. We are committed to backing MTN in this endeavour,” Minister George said.
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MTN expresses enthusiasm to work with Ghana
Mupita expressed gratitude to the minister and his delegation for selecting MTN as a reliable partner and for two days of fruitful discussions.
“We are very focused on understanding the strategy Ghana has and how we as MTN Group and MTN Ghana can support it,” he said.
“We thank you for your commitment in terms of creating an enabling environment for us to carry on the work we are doing, very humbly though, to support the building out of the digital ecosystem that will be a catalyst for growth and expansion and meet the socioeconomic objectives of the Ghanaian government,” Mupita added.
Africans had a responsibility to make sure they worked on their own large language models in order to leverage the solution made feasible by generative AI, since there are over 3,000 languages spoken throughout the continent.
“We must develop our own talent on the African continent; we must develop our own software engineers, and we must be doing more around coding to enable us to all be future fit,” Mupita said.
Ebenezer Asante, Senior Vice President for Markets at MTN Group, stated that MTN was thrilled to be a part of the effort, which closely matched MTN’s strategic goals.
“Between MTN and Ghana, we will partner using common projects to advance the cause of African development,” he said.
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MTN Skills Academy
The MoU follows the launch of the MTN Skills Academy in 2023, which was introduced in several MTN operational countries, including Ghana.
The MTN Skills Academy seeks to make financial and digital skills training accessible across the continent.
The Academy offers a range of courses, such as coding, web development, digital marketing, and data analytics, with the goal of guaranteeing that by the end of 2025, 60 percent of adults and youth have at least rudimentary knowledge of sustainable digital skills.