How relevant or remote this emphasis is to he Ghanaian youth, was the crux of the Cyber Series 2007, September edition. The panelist which included Mr. Kafui Prebbie of One Village Foundation, Ghana and Mr. Leopold Armah of Prime Resources Ltd Accra (with Estelle Akofio-Sowah of Busyinternet), had the responsibility of answering the following questions:
• Are the youth agents of change in Ghana
• Are the youth involved in decision or policy making
• Can the youth compete globally in terms of ICT
• What are the effects of ICT on the youth?

Kafui (the first of the panelists to speak), after introducing the One Village Foundation, chose to look at change from the perspective of whether it is positive or negative. The youth as agents of change according to him are leaders in technology. They are adapters/innovators of technology and early adapters of technology for that matter.
He submitted that for the youth to be leaders of tomorrow and today, they must take their place in information and knowledge sharing and must be guided in its use.

To Leopold (the second speaker) the greatest problem facing the Ghanaian youth is unemployment. According to him, for us to tackle unemployment, we must seek after people who can drive and cause change. In defining the phrase “a change agent” he referred a few academic authorities and submitted that it is someone who accelerates social or behavioral change. In the same way, he defined “youth’ as the period of one’s life when he is young, healthy and strong.
He continued by saying that for us to drive change, we need the youth. He buttressed his position by tracing the history of Ghana and Africa in general, and submitted that the youth have always been in the forefront of leadership in every sphere of life (e.g Nkrumah, Nyerere, Lumumba, Mandela). He went on in buttressing his point by stating that the success stories all over Ghana in the telecom sector for instance are people below the age of 35. He said however that the primary challenge is that of creating the enabling environment for development.
On whether young people are involved in policy /decision making processes, he said an unequivocal NO, and recommended immediately that young people should be involved in processes of policy creation especially where those policies affect them He also said that their inputs should be adopted, and that they should be involved at the same time, in policy evaluation.

Estelle in summarizing the presentations by the panelists said that the presence of the youth is beginning to be felt in the ICT sector where for the first time in 10years we have the first substantive director of NCA: a fairly young man who is also very literate. To her, the impact of the youth will be felt in the sector.
On youth as being agents of change, Estelle observed that we still struggle with making ourselves agents of change, and she asked if:
- it is because of our background
- it is an inherent fault with our educational system
- it is that the leadership of Ghana wants sheepish followership.
She went on to say that the Ghanaian youth is not adventurous and does not want to take responsibility. Our culture requires us to be receptive, thus our lack of adventure she said, is a habit imbibed from the colonial era; such that you do not question authority. She concluded by encouraging the youth to plunge into the opportunities available for knowledge sharing.

OBSERVATIONS AND COMMENTS:
- Youth should explore their talents, and must decide to be agents of change
- ICT might impact the youth negatively, because it has the propensity of making them lazy and destroying the need for human interaction
- Guardianship is paramount for the youth in the use of ICT, because this will expose them to the positive contents of ICT
- The should also come in to publicise the use of ICT and the positive impact it could have on the youth and the society in general.
- Knowledge economy is a global issue and we should get our leadership to act towards this line.

On the impact meetings like this will have, Prince Deh of GINKS, said that GINKS has a mailing list of over 400 membership, including people in the vital positions in the society. Reports on the outcome of CyberSeries meetings are uploaded on the list and through people are being sensitized on issues such as the one being discussed at the meeting.
On ICT policies available for the Ghanaian youth, the panelists agreed that there is not any that comes to mind even though there are policies that claim to be in the interest of the youth. It was therefore recommended that we advocate for ICT policies that will involve the youth to a larger extent than what exists today.

OTHER COMMENTS AND OBSERVATION
• The responsibility for change is in the youth to collaborate with adults. Young people in Ghana are too defragmented, and so they must be focused.
• There are indeed negative aspects in the use of ICT, but the positive ones outweigh the negative.
• Mentorship is fundamental for the youth to be able to take their place as change agents, whether through ICT or through any other facet of life.
• We are in a system that does not encourage initiative and innovation. This must have to change.
• Entrepreneurship training must be part of our school curriculum.
• We nee to get children involved in the training in order to advance the knowledge economy.
In their final comments, Kafui said that he is quite happy, and yet skeptical about the fact that our schools are adopting curriculum that is ICT driven, because the educational system in Ghana is not meeting our needs – Standardization is very important.
On Leopold part, he said collaboration is very essential in national development, and without the right people in the right places, policies will never hold any water.