DATA Analyst with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Derek Kweku Degbedzui, has urged Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the country, especially those in the digital and technology sector, to venture more into data production.
According to him, data production would help in informing policy decisions and implementation, while stressing that the use of data has become “non-negotiable” in our current dispensation as a country.
Mr. Degbedzui made these remarks at the Accra West Startup Summit – an event aimed at honing the tech and digital skills of upcoming entrepreneurs to contribute to Ghana’s digital industry – where he intimated that startups need to produce data as much as they consume them.
“I think generally, at this point using data is non-negotiable. It’s part of our lives now. Even if you’re not the producer, you’re a consumer as well,” he said.
“A lot of things are happening in the space of data that it makes it possible for all of us now to use. If you really want to be the right users of data, then we should all be willing to be part of the process to make it more workable,” he noted.
The Accra West Startup Summit is a pitching competition put together by the Ghana Tech Lab in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation.
Held under the theme: “Data Science for Sustainable Business Development and Job Creation”, the event saw a total of ten startups pitch their business modules in front of judges after which a set of eventual winners were named.
Detailing the processes for the event, Mr. Degbedzui explained that applications are usually opened for interested individuals, especially people who have completed tertiary institutions.
Selections are made after interviews and then the selected individuals are taken through a 6-week intensive training at the end of which they come out well equipped for the next stage.
“We started this whole project in 2018. Consistently we’ve been having different programs in mobile app development, web development, data science training, and some also in cloud computing, and I think the whole idea has been to equip learners to have the knowledge first and be able to have business ideas from that which they can develop to make a start-up. Over the past years, it’s been very successful.”
By Nii Adjei Mensahfio