The Director-General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Professor Ahmed Abdulai Jinapor, has urged tertiary institutions to integrate cybersecurity education into their curricula and promote a culture of digital responsibility across all levels of higher learning.
Speaking at the National Cybersecurity Education Conference in Accra, organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, the Cyber Security Authority (CSA), and development partners, Jinapor said GTEC was developing a coherent policy framework to advance cybersecurity education nationwide.
“We aim to encourage curricular reforms that integrate cybersecurity across disciplines — ensuring that engineering students, teacher trainees, and business graduates alike can act responsibly in the digital domain,” he said.
He commended the Cyber Security Authority for its leadership under the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038), praising its efforts in capacity building and public awareness creation. These, he noted, have laid the groundwork for a secure and globally competitive tertiary education sector.
Evolving threats
Prof. Jinapor warned that cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated, affecting even smaller tertiary institutions with basic internet access. He cited ransomware, phishing, identity theft, and online fraud (“sakawa”) as major risks undermining the integrity of Ghana’s education system.
He said the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has intensified these challenges by introducing risks such as data manipulation and algorithmic bias, which could threaten academic integrity.
“These threats go beyond financial loss. They touch on academic freedom, intellectual property, and human dignity,” he said. “Universities host critical national data in health, energy, and agriculture. A breach in any of these areas undermines public confidence in digital governance.”
Institutional culture
The GTEC Director-General stressed that cybersecurity must become part of institutional culture rather than a technical afterthought. He urged university leaders to invest in digital security infrastructure, develop incident response plans, and train staff and students to recognize and mitigate cyber risks.
He revealed that GTEC will soon include cybersecurity readiness as a key element in its institutional quality assurance framework.
“Cyber resilience is not only about technology — it is about people and principles,” Jinapor said. “It reflects the ability of institutions to anticipate, absorb, and adapt to digital shocks while protecting users’ rights.”
Innovation and ethics
Prof. Jinapor emphasized the importance of protecting digital rights, including privacy, freedom of expression, and access to information, as essential components of academic freedom and democratic governance.
He called on tertiary institutions to balance technological innovation with ethical responsibility, ensuring that data collection and smart campus technologies comply with national laws and uphold individual freedoms.
“Our goal is to create an ecosystem where technology empowers learning and research without compromising rights or inclusiveness,” he said.
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