Ghana becomes 2nd in Africa to get ‘AI’ Knowledge & Skills portal
Ghana after launching www.gksb.gov.gh has become the second country in Africa to have a Knowledge and Skills portal that grants access to over 5 million online library archives, learning resources, and tools.
The Ghana Knowledge and Skills portal was launched on September 17, 2024, at the Accra Digital Centre by the Education and Communications Ministries to enhance knowledge acquisition and skills development in the country.
Npontu Technologies, a Ghanaian-owned company developed the portal with support from Telecommunication giant MTN and funding from the World Bank.
Speaking at the launch of the GKSB, the Communications Minister, Honourable Ursula Owusu-Ekuful expressed her excitement at the platform that will allow students of all classes of schools to access knowledge everywhere they are.
She indicated that the platform was built and fed with information that is in line with the approved curriculum.
“Only Egypt has a similar platform. Ours has AI integrated with other features and will be the best in Africa,” she said.
The Digitalisation and Communications Minister expressed her optimism that the Ghana Knowledge and Skills platform will allow prospective students to equip themselves with all the information they need to excel in the digital age.
The inclusion of TVET courses and modules she said is a great addition as it will help build the skills of Technical students.
The GKSB platform, the Communications Minister Indicated will serve as a marketing platform for Ghanaian publishers who she says will be allowed to upload soft copies of their work to be sold at a fee.
The Ghana Knowledge and Skills Bank according to the Digitalisation Ministry will store a wide array of educational materials including content from reputable sources such as Cambridge University Press, Cengage Learning, and many others.
“This portal has been built to serve as a one-stop shop for knowledge acquisition. It will be linked to the existing portals for ease of referencing.
It also includes online materials already developed by the Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling (CENDLOS) and the Ghana Education Service,” the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization said in the post.
On his part, the Minister in Charge of Education, Dr Yaw Adutwum indicated that there is a transformation going on in the education sector saying the Ghana Knowledge and Skills Bank is modelled after the Egyptian Knowledge Bank.
“The initiative is funded by the World Bank with textbook and magazines for universities on it, all the textbook and literature books from primary are all on the “Ghana Knowledge and Skills Bank,” the Education Minister stated.
What you need is your national ID, you log in, books are made available to you at home school and then on your devices. So our government is looking at creating the entire ecosystem for transformation of education,” he said ahead of the GKSB portal launch.