Registration for the second phase of Ghana’s One Million Coders Programme (OMCP) is now open, as the government extends the flagship digital skills initiative to a wider pool of applicants following a pilot phase that drew far more interest than anticipated.
The Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations announced the opening of the Phase 2 portal, inviting young Ghanaians to register at the programme’s official website and pursue careers in the technology sector. Applicants who participated in the pilot or Phase 1 but were not selected do not need to reapply, and can instead log into their existing accounts and select preferred courses once the portal is fully active.
The pilot phase of the OMCP initially targeted 500 trainees across four centres in Accra, Kumasi, Sunyani and Tamale. The ministry received more than 94,000 applications within 48 hours, prompting an immediate expansion to approximately 1,000 participants. The scale of that response shaped the design of the national rollout, which now operates across 130 learning centres in all 16 regions of Ghana, each equipped with 50 specialised laptops configured for coding and digital training.
Twelve universities are participating in the current phase, among them the University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University of Cape Coast. The government has recruited 130 constituency-level coordinators to manage the centres and provide technical support, with plans to extend the programme to all constituencies nationwide.
Private sector participation has grown as the programme scales. MTN Ghana contributed approximately $2 million to fund laptop procurement for selected university partners. Telecel has committed to providing free access to its Startocode learning platform to train 100,000 young Ghanaians over the next four years. Cisco Networking Academy is also providing training resources to supplement the curriculum.
The programme carries an inclusion target, with a portion of training slots reserved for persons with disabilities, in line with the recently launched National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy’s emphasis on equitable digital access. President John Dramani Mahama underscored this commitment at the strategy’s launch last Friday, stating that no Ghanaian should be left behind in the country’s digital transition.
The registration process requires applicants to provide a valid email address and a Ghana Card. Educational certificates can be submitted optionally. Registration is accessible through the portal at onemillioncoders.gov.gh.
The OMCP is a central pillar of Ghana’s broader ambition to position itself as a technology and AI hub in West Africa. Whether Phase 2 delivers on its enrolment targets will depend not only on curriculum quality and private sector backing, but also on the reliability of internet access and power supply across training centres, particularly in regions where infrastructure remains uneven.
