Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister of Communications and Digitisation, says some 1,000 girls from public basic schools would be enrolled in this year's 'Girl in Information and Communication Technology (ICT)' programme. The move, which is an add up to last year's 300 beneficiaries, is to reach out to more girls in the training, especially those in deprived areas. The Girls in ICT programme was introduced in 2012 by the International Telecommunications Union to create a global environment that empowered and encouraged girls and young women to consider studies and careers in the growing field of ICTs.  The girls are introduced to scratch and basic structures of programming applications, including website design, development of games, coding and simple ICT applications, after which they participate in a competition. Madam Owusu-Ekuful said this during visits to some Districts in the Greater Accra Region to observe how the school girls were faring in the commencement of the training programme. The Minister vi sited Our Lady of Assumption R/C Basic School in the Ga North Municipality, where 36 girls from 26 schools were in training; Kotobabi No.3 Basic School in the Ayawaso Central Municipality, which had 34 girls from 24 schools, and Kaneshie St Joseph Anglican Basic School in the Accra Metropolitan Area with 24 girls from 11 schools. Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said the best 100 girls among the total participants would be presented with laptops, whereas the best 10 would have their schools' computer laboratories refurbished and the top three would receive cash prizes and gifts in addition to the laptops. She urged the students to be committed to the training and take their lessons seriously, saying, that could be the beginning of them creating their own computer programmes and softwares. 'Every profession in this world needs some form of technology and these things should form the foundation of lifelong interest in ICT for you. Keep practicing and be persistent to become successful in this field,' she added. The Ministe r said they were going to establish a 'Girls in ICT Trust' where funds would be raised to sustain and enhance the programme. Meanwhile, some of the students expressed appreciation to the Ministry for the project and promised to give off their best in the training. Ruby Owusuaa Nyarko, a JHS One student at Asofan A 1 Basic School, said she had developed interests in programming and would want to be a programmer in the future. She said she had little knowledge in computers prior to the commencement of the training, however, she had now become more conversant with it, especially the programming softwares. Vanessa Torsu, a JHS Two student of Ofankor M/A Basic School, said she was hoping to create her own programmes and games through the training. She expressed appreciation to the instructors for painstakingly teaching them, especially those of them who did not have much knowledge in ICT prior to their enrollment on the programme. Source: Ghana News Agency