Ghana has secured a commitment from Huawei Technologies to provide free artificial intelligence training for girls as part of a government programme aimed at building digital skills among young women.
The agreement was reached during a meeting between Communications Minister Samuel Nartey George and Huawei Senior Vice President Steven Yi at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where the two sides also discussed broader technology cooperation including rural connectivity, artificial intelligence infrastructure and potential device manufacturing.
In an interview after the meeting, George said the Chinese technology firm agreed to support the government’s Girls in ICT programme by adding artificial intelligence training modules. “But with Huawei coming on board, we are going to have a crash program in AI skills,” he said. “For me this is critical because once the girls get training in AI, as soon as they finish they can jump on my One Million Coders Programme and get further training there – this means we are catching them young.”
The programme currently trains participants in coding, animation and basic computing over a two-week period. Under the new arrangement, Huawei will work with the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications and the ministry to introduce AI-focused training for about 3,000 girls this year. The agreement follows discussions on Huawei’s broader interest in Ghana’s technology sector, including a proposed $250 million artificial intelligence compute centre, expansion of rural telephony and the rollout of 5G services.
George said he pushed for the technology training initiative as part of efforts to ensure the company contributes to Ghana’s digital development. Beyond skills training, the minister said the government is also exploring the possibility of establishing a Huawei handheld device assembly plant in Ghana to produce low-cost smartphones for the domestic market and neighbouring countries. The proposal aligns with an initiative backed by the GSMA and several device manufacturers to supply smartphones priced around $40 across Africa to expand digital access.
George said Ghana has asked to present its case directly to the participating manufacturers as they consider locations for assembly plants. “We made a clean headway on that front with Huawei and so we look forward to that as well,” said. “I however made it clear to Huawei that quality and affordability is critical and we will not compromise on that.”
The minister said expanding affordable smartphone access remains key to increasing digital usage in the country. Although Ghana has more than 90% 4G network coverage, actual usage remains below 60%, largely because many consumers still rely on basic feature phones. He said establishing a local device assembly plant could lower costs and allow more people to access 4G and future 5G services.
