Addis Ababa, 15 November - More than 55 African youth, representing all of ECA's member States participated in a one day intensive skills building programme on Blogging and e-commerce at the Information Technology Centre for Africa (ITCA). The training was offered to the youth here to attend the ADF was an effort to provide basic understanding of the links between ICT and enterprise development. Its specific objectives are to introduce the participants to the creation and management of blogs using the CatGen Software to create e-commerce sites, build product catalogues and promote businesses through the Internet. Participants were informed that an estimated 46.3 percent of blogs are started by people between the ages of 21 and 30, with 28.2 percent authored by people in the 31- to 40-year-old demographic.
In her welcoming message, the Officer in Charge of the ICT and Science & Technology Division, Ms. Aida Opoku-Mensah stressed that the future of our continent lies on the shoulder of the youth with all the opportunities and the challenges. ECA in the framework of implementing the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) will assist in promoting regulatory environments, conducive to effective public and private partnership, and ICT youth led investment should be put in place she added.
Participants also underscored the importance of this training, and according to Ms Mentwab Abiy of Dot Ethiopia, “I believe that ICT can be a great way to develop oneself. What ever business you're in, by using ICT you can make yourself and your business a member of this world”.
Houda Chakiri of Ifrane Techno-park Morocoo, talking about ICT and Youth entrepreneurship said “ Young entrepreneurs are making the future of Africa and there are lots of opportunities in ICT fields all what we need is willingness to go ahead”.
The training comprised of some lectures and hands-on exercises. These activities are co-sponsored by ECA, the Swiss Development Cooperation, the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), the Africa Node of the Global ePolicy Resource Network (ePol-NET) and Canadian e-Policy Resource Centre (CePRC).
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