Digital skills and technology have become more critical for the Ghanaian economy as it looks to embrace the digital revolution, while positioning itself as a major tech hub in Africa, especially in the West. With the world going virtual, and COVID-19 accelerating this process, the need to become more prepared for the digital economy has never been more critical. Digital businesses and the required became vital commodities for the economy, and the demand is growing exponentially.
Since late 2020, the MEST programs team in partnership with Mastercard Foundation have developed and begun to implement three programs – Pre-MEST, MEST Express and MEST Scale – focused on the digital economy through young people, startups and SMEs.
This report shares our first set of high-level results from our pilots in 2020 and first year of implementation in 2021 with a focus on Pre-MEST and MEST Express. We provide an overview of our programs and the impact that we have generated so far. More specifically, we highlight the progress of our programs in terms of results, learnings and stories.
These programs have given us many insights through our deep engagement with young people, startups and hubs in the Ghanaian ecosystem, this includes but is not limited to the immense talent and partnerships that exist outside of Accra; the acceleration of tech startups to generate jobs via their users and soft skills proving to be a highly valuable asset for young people to attain, retain, maintain and improve work. These are just some of the insights and results that are shared in our Impact Update report.
