TENTMAKER GHANA RAPTORKIDS PROGRAMMING PREPARES COMMUNITY KIDS FOR THE FUTURE

Bill Gates of Microsoft, Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Ruchi of Dropbox and many others changing the narratives of the world seem to have a common capacity that boosts their abilities — they all have learnt computer coding and programming, i.e. they speak the computer language.

Steve Jobs once said, “Everybody in this country (world) should learn how to program a computer… because it teaches you how to think.” This statement is not only true for Americans, the country he was referring to, but also for the entire world, for those willing to make an impact and be relevant in the current globalized world.

We at Tentmaker Ghana believe the world has converged as a global village and one of the common languages to learn to enable our survival is the computer language; coding and programming. At the least, in the current dispensation, without the knowledge in operating a personal computer (PC) either for general applications such as Ms. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other Microsoft office suits or for social media or for launching search engines or for specific applications such as organization specific software, then our place in making any meaningful impact in the current world is shortchanged and limited to the least.

This is true even for the seamstress or tailor as well as the musician, the artist, the basic schoolteacher and even the commercial bus driver. If you are not erudite in IT, your impact is limited. Livelihood is almost earned by our ability to scale our impact in society and digitization is the main tool. This is why Uber is taking over taxi businesses, whiles online shops are making quantum income than ‘brick and mortar’ shops.

“Coding improves communication… When kids learn how to code, they learn how to communicate with the most simple-minded audience imaginable — computers. As mentioned, coding teaches kids how to break down complex ideas and arrange them in a way that computers can understand.” That is according to Ryan of iD Tech speaking on why kids must learn how to code.

“I believe we are gradually moving to the space where real impact will be made not by users of software or digital tools, but the creators of these common global language, i.e. computer programms and codes, because each institution and I dare add individuals, would have to have the ability to write their own encrypted systems to be sure of its safety or they will be at risk to developers and hackers.” said the CEO of Tentmaker Ghana, Henry Agyei Asare.

“We want to prepare our community to be relevant and make global impact and that is why we launched the RaptorKids program to elevate the creativities and abilities of the kids in our community,” he added.

The RaptorKids program is a coding and programming training organized by Tentmaker Ghana Incubator hub to train children to not only to understand and write codes or programming, but to also build global solutions with their knowledge. Tentmaker Ghana, through its mentorship program, is nurturing the kids to write educational, gaming and other relevant programs for users. The basic is for them to develop websites and build gaming apps for clients such as schools and other organizations.

The first cohorts, made up of children aged between 10 to 12 years have gone through the first stage of learning HTML and CSS codes which give them the practical knowledge of websites development.

“We will like these kids to change the narratives in the country where kids are seen at gaming centers and pubs gambling. We see them in this community, we want them to set new agenda where they will make real income by writing computer programs for educational institutions such as digitizing schools lessons and information in an app form and putting relevant information in game format for easy learning. We believe this will enhance learning and application of what we learn since students will learn with the excitement that will stimulate their creative minds,” the CEO added.

Tentmaker Ghana is a business incubator hub that provides co-working space and startup support at its co-working office located at Old Ashongman in Accra. Their incubator focus is in the creatives i.e. Art, Craft, Digital, Music, Fashion, Movie, and other areas that will promote the culture of the communities and the nation in a creative way.

The company believes Ghanaians have natural creativity, skills and abilities, which can be projected globally for economic value and social impact. It has as its mission ‘To inspire abilities, creativities and skills of our community to create economic value, impact and growth’ and a vision to be referred to as the ‘go to hub’.

The company serves entrepreneurs and individuals who wish to validate and incubate their ideas into economically viable solutions, startups that need support to scale and affordable co-working offices for institutions, consultants and startups. It also have opportunities for investors looking for businesses to invest in and other partners such as government and other agencies interested in building a community of entrepreneurs and social impact makers.