The Ministry of Education is to introduce coding in the basic school curriculum to promote software and website development.

Communication Minister, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, says it will also bridge the technology gap between their counterparts in the developed world.

She was speaking at a ceremony Friday to mark Girls in ICT Day in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital.

Mrs. Ekuful says the Ministry is collaborating with Ghana Investment for Electronic Communication to support community information centers to promote e-learning and other digital services.

“I will urge our girls if there are no computers centres in your school there will be computer information centres nearby so take advantage of them.”

“We will be renovating and re-equipping them with internet connectivity so that you can also learn off hours," she said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry is set to install the second internet exchange point in Kumasi by the end of May 2018.

It will facilitate local internet traffic to reduce band cost and, eventually, prices of data. The move is part of government's scheme to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and make Kumasi a major hub for business.

As part of government’s cyberscurity initiative, the Ministry is working on a child protection framework to guide implementation.

It is aimed at protecting children as they make use of the Internet.

Chief of Staff, Akosu Frema Osei Opare, was worried skills gap continue to widen in the country’s development effort.

She wants urgent steps to address it in order to maintain Ghana’s competitiveness as a global player.

International Telecommunication Union Girls in ICT Day is a global effort to encourage female children and young women to take up careers in information and communication technology.

Since 2011, over 240,000 girls in over 160 countries worldwide have participated in the celebration.

The theme for this year is,’’Expand Horizon, Change Attitude.

Deputy Secretary- General, Malcolm Johnson, urged girls to explore opportunities in the ICT.

“In the future, there will be many jobs available to you that don’t exist today but one thing is for sure; digital skills will be important to you regardless what job you choose,” he said.

About 600 school pupils from selected basic schools in the Ashanti Region participated in an ICT competition.

Ten of them who excelled were awarded certificates and other prizes.

Nora Akoto Tamakloe was adjudged the overall best.