Ghana IT and youth employment

Ghana has potential in the IT sector. The country has many young, English-speaking professionals with digital skills, and it is steadily building a name as a growing outsourcing destination. There is more and more demand in Europe and other international markets for IT and outsourcing services.

Most Ghanaian IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with around 15 to 20 employees. Many already have the technical capability to serve European clients but currently work mainly for the domestic market. What holds them back is often structural. For example, a lack of dedicated export sales capacity, gaps in compliance with data-handling standards expected by European Union (EU) clients, and HR practices that struggle to retain staff once they are trained. At the same time, many young graduates struggle to enter the job market. Not for lack of available education, but because navigating which courses, internships, and skills to pursue, and in what order, is genuinely difficult for a first-time job seeker.

About the project

Through this project, CBI supports SMEs, the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to strengthen the IT sector and improve youth employment. The project focuses on building company capacity and facilitating access international markets. The goals are to:

• Support SMEs to grow and export IT services
• Support the KNUST in improving and deploying an IT career roadmap to better equip students and first-time job seekers for the job market. The roadmap shows students their career options and how to achieve them. It highlights the technical skills, soft skills, and practical experience needed for each path.
• Support in trade fair preparation and participation
• Create more and better jobs for young professionals
• Improve skills development and training
• Strengthen cooperation between companies, education providers, and other stakeholders
• Promote better working conditions and inclusive employment.

CBI's activities include:

• Selecting and supporting leading SMEs on export readiness through business export coaching and a Community of Practice
• Carrying out workshops on delivery quality, GDPR and data compliance, security, Responsible Business Conduct (RBC), and youth engagement
• Initiating an IT career roadmap with a career service centre of the university in Kumasi, to guide first-time job seekers through available training programmes and skills-development options
• Building sector partnerships, including with the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, to support trade fair preparation and participation.

Collaborate with us

This project will run up to March 2027 and (if needed) will not take on new partnerships or activities. For questions or more information, please contact Jules van Son.

Reach out now

About CBI

CBI promotes sustainable production and trade between low-and middle-income countries and the Netherlands and Europe. We partner with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their ecosystem to strengthen their social and environmental sustainability.

CBI is part of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and commissioned by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.