About 150,000 people have registered for the government’s One Million Coders youth development programme. This was confirmed by the CEO of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), who as revealed that the One Million Coders programme has now attracted nearly 150,000 registered participants across the country.

The One Million Coders Programme is a Ghanaian government initiative launched in 2025 by President John Dramani Mahama to train one million Ghanaians in coding and digital skills by 2030.

The programme began as a pilot with about 290 participants; however, Rashid Tanko revealed during an appearance on Channel One’s Breakfast Daily on Thursday, January 8, that it has since recorded about 149,710 participants, marking an increase of over 50 percent.

Also, he mentioned that learners of all ages from 18 to 70 were currently enrolled on the programme.

Speaking on Channel One TV’s Breakfast Daily on Thursday, January 8, Rashid Tanko said the initiative has already provided 20,000 high-speed laptops to support training, ensuring participants are equipped to benefit from the programme fully.

Rashid also highlighted the renovation of community ICT centres, many of which had fallen into disrepair under the previous administration. The renovated centres, according to him, will be rolled out nationwide in the first quarter of this year, marking a major boost for digital learning infrastructure.

“We have brought in 20,000 high-speed laptops for the training. When I took over the office, the NPP had run down all the community information centres and ICT centres. Some of the computers were covered with dusty rags when I went for inspection as the GIFEC CEO.

“The centres are being renovated now. We have completed some, and we are going to roll them out in the first quarter of this year,” he said.

One Million Coders Programme

The Government of Ghana on April 16 officially launched the One Million Coders Programme at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre in a bid to position young Ghanaians for the digital economy through skills development in coding and digital technology.

Interest in Ghana’s newly launched One Million Coders Programme surged beyond expectations, with over 91,000 applications received on that fateful day, far exceeding the initial target of 260 participants.

Samuel Nartey George revealed the figures during the official launch of the programme.

"We planned to do the pilot with 260 students but within the first four hours of announcing, we had over 4,000 applications. We decided to do a double track and do 520. As at this morning, the number of applications we have received is 91,847 applications,” he said.

“This speaks to the visionary nature of your [President’s] plan and vision to transform our digital ecosystem,” the minister added, addressing the president at the event.

The initiative began with a pilot phase across four regions—Greater Accra, Ashanti, Bono, and Upper East—bringing together over 500 participants from Accra, Kumasi, Sunyani, and Bolgatanga for the inaugural ceremony.

The One Million Coders Programme is designed to train one million youth across the country in critical digital skills that will make them competitive in emerging sectors such as business process outsourcing (BPO) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO).

President John Dramani Mahama has encouraged young Ghanaians to take charge of the One Million Coders programme and use it as a stepping stone into the world of innovation, entrepreneurship, and digital opportunity.

Speaking at the national launch of the initiative on April 16, Mr Mahama called on the youth to embrace the programme as their own, underscoring its potential to open doors in the fast-evolving global digital space.

“To the youth of Ghana, I say this programme is for you. Take it and own it,” he urged. “Let this be your launchpad into innovation, entrepreneurship and global relevance. Let this be the bridge between your dreams and the opportunities of the digital age.”

“You are not just participants in this initiative, you are the architects of Ghana’s digital future. In the next phase, we will activate training centres at community information centres across all metropolitan municipal and district assemblies,” he revealed.