When the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government took office in January, one of its most talked-about promises was to create one million Ghanaian coders.

The initiative, spearheaded by the Minister of Communication, Digital Technology, and Innovation, Sam Nartey George, was meant to move toward a knowledge-based economy—one where Ghanaian youth would drive innovation in software, artificial intelligence, and digital entrepreneurship.

Six months after its grand launch in April, however, the One Million Coders initiative has all but vanished from public view.

According to multiple sources, the One Million Coders Programme in Ghana was allocated GH¢100 million by the government.

Additionally, in the 2025 budget statement for the Ministry of Communications, Digital Technology & Innovations, the line-item for “CODERS (One Million Coders Programme)” shows GH¢100 million (split as GH¢60 million + GH¢40 million) under the ministry’s allocation.

Screenshot of the split budgetary allocation

The Big launch that stirred hope

The initiative was launched with fanfare at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT in Accra, promising free training in coding, AI, cybersecurity, and software development.

It was to be powered by the online platform 1millioncoders.gov.gh, through which participants would register, take an aptitude test, and begin remote learning before being assigned to in-person training centres nationwide.

The launch generated excitement across the country.

Thousands of young people registered online, sharing screenshots of their application confirmations and hopeful tweets about finally getting a chance to learn to code.

Screenshot of a post made on X after its launch

Months Later, the Silence Is Deafening

Today, many of those same young people are asking: What happened to the program?

On X (formerly Twitter), the hashtag #1MillionCoders has become a growing hub of frustration.

On Reddit, similar sentiments have surfaced across threads in r/TechGhana with users describing the program as “an empty promise.”

A screenshot of a Reddit thread

A Registrant’s Story: From Hope to DisappointmentOne registrant, Jehiel Britstot Houmanou , spoke at length about his experience.

“After the publicity, a friend told me about it. He had already taken the test, so I tried it too. I registered, received an email with my logins, and took the aptitude test. Later, my coursemates said they had also joined. Everyone was excited because Sam George was engaging the media and President Mahama had even acknowledged the initiative,” he said.

Screenshot of his assesment details

He recalls that the Kofi Annan ICT Centre was mentioned as one of the venues for physical sessions.

“We were told we’d start classes soon after the launch,” he added.

But months later, nothing followed.

“Till date, I haven’t received an email to show whether I was accepted or not. None of the people I know who took the test have had any feedback. It’s like the whole thing just disappeared.”

He had selected the Cybersecurity and Networking Track, hoping to gain practical experience. But with his National Service now underway, he says the window of opportunity is closing.

OSINT Findings: Technical Snapshot of the One Million Coders WebsiteAn open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysis of the One Million Coders website (onemillioncoders.gov.gh) reveals that the platform is largely inactive or misconfigured.

An SSL Labs assessment conducted on November 4, 2025, returned an error stating, “Assessment failed: Unable to connect to the server.”

The site’s IP address (104.155.145.213) failed to respond to secure connection requests, with multiple error flags including “No secure protocols supported,” “Failed to obtain certificate,” and “Handshake failure.”

These findings indicate that the website lacks a valid SSL certificate and is not currently supporting modern encryption protocols such as TLS 1.2 or 1.3.

Additionally, the report shows possible firewall or server misconfigurations, suggesting that the domain may either be offline or its backend infrastructure has been disabled.

The presence of an outdated “version 1 certificate” entry hints at an abandoned or unfinished deployment process.

Overall, these technical lapses confirm that the platform — which was meant to drive the government’s 1 Million Coders initiative — is non-operational as of this assessment, raising further questions about the project’s digital readiness and transparency.

A screenshot of the resullts after accessing the website

OSINT Findings: The Digital Trail Behind the “One Million Coders” WebsiteA DNS lookup shows that the website is hosted under the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) domain infrastructure — specifically pointing to multiple NITA-managed nameservers such as ns1.nita.gov.gh, ns2.nita.gov.gh, and ns5.nita.gov.gh.

This confirms that the site was officially registered and operated under a government-controlled system, not a private contractor. Its primary IP address, 104.155.145.213, routes through a datacenter also associated with NITA’s infrastructure, indicating the state’s involvement in provisioning the hosting environment.

However, the SSL report exposes serious configuration and security failures. The site failed to establish a secure connection due to an invalid or outdated SSL certificate, described as a “version 1” type — a protocol so obsolete that modern browsers automatically reject it.

Additionally, the domain does not support modern encryption standards (TLS 1.3), leaving it vulnerable to data interception.

The DNS records show that while mail exchange (MX) is configured to use Microsoft Outlook’s protection service (mail.protection.outlook.com), no functioning web service is currently available. This mismatch — where email services remain configured but the website itself is unreachable — often points to a dormant or suspended web project.

Further evidence comes from the SOA (Start of Authority) record, which references a datacenter timestamp dated April 15, 2025. This entry indicates when the domain’s administrative settings were last updated on NITA’s servers.

However, despite that relatively recent timestamp, there has been no visible front-end activity or public-facing update since the initiative’s relaunch. This mismatch between backend maintenance and public functionality raises questions about whether the update was merely a routine automated system renewal or part of a genuine effort to restore the site.

In either case, the absence of a working interface months after the relaunch suggests that the technical infrastructure remains incomplete or deliberately offline, reinforcing suspicions that the One Million Coders platform never fully materialized beyond its initial announcement.

In plain terms, the One Million Coders domain looks like an empty digital shell — once linked to a legitimate government platform but now left unsecured and inaccessible. For registrants and aspiring coders who were told to rely on this portal for updates and communication, its current state reinforces growing fears that the initiative has quietly stalled.

Website Status: Evidence of Inactivity

Further OSINT evidence reinforces that the One Million Coders portal is effectively inactive. A recent scan of the site’s server records shows its current status listed as “Inactive”, with no detectable web server type, page title, meta description, or keywords.

In other words, the platform has no functional content or accessible interface, a stark contrast to its supposed role as a live digital training hub for thousands of young Ghanaians.

Historical server data offers a telling timeline of inconsistency. Records show that the website was briefly active on May 31, 2025, operating on an NGINX/1.25.4 server — an open-source web server widely used for hosting interactive platforms. However, both before and after that short window of activity — on April 9, 2025, and again on November 4, 2025 — the site reverted to an inactive state, with no traceable server configuration.

This pattern suggests either temporary testing or stalled development, rather than a continuous, maintained government program. The site’s repeated shutdowns within months of each other imply that the infrastructure may have been set up only for the initial launch period and then abandoned soon after publicity.

Source: My Joyonline.com