The government has employed the use of social media to promote businesses of young Ghanaian entrepreneurs. The government also intends to use the various social media platforms to support selected young Ghanaians embarking on selected courses.
This will be done by utilizing the social media mileage of the Ministry of Information, social media influencers and also partnership with media houses.
To this end, the Ministry of Information yesterday unveiled an innovative social marketing project, dubbed “Amplified”, to support the plan.
The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said because social media now plays an important role in the country’s digital space, leveraging it through innovative ways to help Ghanaian businesses would help young businesspeople to find the needed online market for their products.
“The Ministry has succeeded in growing its online audience to more than 1.2 million followers across all of its social media channels. Today, as I speak to you, the Ministry reaches more than 3 million people on a monthly basis, and is the most relevant government institution in the country, according to data from Facebook,” he said.
“Beyond the normal routine of supporting government communication, the Ministry has programed series of social marketing activities focused on using digital media channels of the Ministry and the reach of its programme partners of bloggers and social media influencers to now support the work of young Ghanaians under the programme called Amplified,” he added.
Good servant
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Adutwum, described the project as one of the creative and inventive ways of developing the country’s human capital.
He said it is about time Ghanaian youth put social media to good use to stimulate national conversations, provide support for human-centered issues and provide the necessary platforms for Ghanaian businesses to sell their products and render their service to the local and international market.
Easing travels
In another development, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia has challenged the AfCFTA Secretariat to move quickly and implement an open sky policy for member states of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). This, he says, is to ease travels and boost trade in Africa.
Addressing a virtual first Africa Trade Roundtable by the University of Professional Studies Law School, Dr Bawumia said implementing an open sky policy, which is to ease air travel restrictions, is key to realising the full benefits of AfCFTA among member states.
He stressed that it is important for AfCFTA to adopt the open air policy to ensure that the charter does not remain on paper without benefiting member states and the people.
