The Tech In Ghana conference recently held it’s 3rd edition on the 26th and 27th of November at the Accra Digital Centre.
Officially, it would be the 6th edition as the event organisers also hold the conference in the UK.
The conference was organised by AB2020, a communications and events company that promotes and connects the Africa business, technology, and investment community.
Over the two day event, there were a myriad of different panels covering different areas in the Ghana Tech ecosystem and a new format of “Breakout Session” was introduced.
Here are some highlights from the two-day event:
Day 1 Highlights
The event kicked with the MCs for the event, Kokui Selormey (Broadcaster) & Phil Ashon (Citi TV) welcome guests and officially opening the event.
The opening keynote was given by the Deputy Minister of Communication, Honourable Vincent Sowah Odote.
Iain Walker, the British High Commissioner to Ghana also presented his keynote and spoke about the cooperation of the British High Commission to Ghana’s tech ecosystem.
Panel Discussions
The panel discussions kicked out with the topic of what the future of payments would look like in Ghana
The panelists included:
- Adbul-Majeed Rufai, (Senior Manager MFS, MTN)
- Martison Obeng-Agyei (Director, Vodafone Cash)
- Adoma Peprah (Country Manager: Ghana, Visa)
- Andrew Takyi-Appiah (Managing Director, Zeepay)
- Reynell Badoe (Manager, Payments, Stanbic Bank)
The second panel discussed Ghana’s National Agenda in which the panelists spoke about some ongoing technology projects in Ghana including Ghana’s digital addressing system and the Ghana ID Card project. Panelists included:
- Hon. Vincent Sowah Odotei, Deputy Minister for Communications
- Daniel Marfo, Country Manager, Zipline
- Augustine Baffo, Deputy Administrator, Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC)
- Richard Kwame Frimpong, Managing Director, AssaseGPS
The last panel for the morning talked about driving innovation in Ghana’s ecosystem through policy. Panelist included:
- David Ofori, Head of Operations, Accra Digital Centre
- Alex Segrove, Head of International Delivery, Government Digital Service, Cabinet Office (UK)
- Eric Osiakwan, Managing Partner, Chanzo Capital
- Franklin Owusu-Karikari, Director of Business Support, National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP)
- Leticia Brown, Co-Director, Intelligent Capital
After a lunch break, the audience went into different break out sessions. The breakout sessions included Global Collaborations, Future of Payments Deep Dive and Startup Policy Workshop
Day 2 Highlights
The second day started with a welcome and some keynotes from the Africa Academy of Science (ASA).
After their address, some Ashesi students gave presentations about their startup businesses and projects.
Next up was a keynote given by Rosy Fynn, CEO of Busy Ghana. This was followed by presentations from female leads of tech companies including Zipline, Jetstream Africa, Foundervine and Fineazy.
Rosy Fynn, CEO Of Busy Georgina Wilson, Flight Operations Lead of Zipline International Miishe Addy, Co-Founder of Jetstream Africa Izzy Obeng, Foundervine Monique Baars, Founder of Fineazy
After the presentations, there was a panel which discussed bringing young people into the agriculture space through the use of technology.
The panelists included:
- Honourable Kwasi Etu-Bonde, Member of Parliament
- Benjamin Gyan-Kesse, Program Manager, Kosmos Innovation Center
- Eugene Asiedu, Chief Technology Officer, Kwidex
- Erik Buch Procida, AfroChampions
- Francis Obirikorang, Co-founder and CEO, AgroCenta
The last panel for the morning before a lunch break was about bridging the gap between Academia and Industry.
Panelists included:
- Gordon Adomdza, Associate Professor, Ashesi
- Femi Adewumi, Training Programme Director, MEST
- Edmund Owusu Agyapong, Statistics Officer, Ghana Education Service
- Lexy Owusu-Boahene, Managing Director, LXHR Solutions
After the lunch break, there was a panel session for the discussion of Tech In Entertainment in Ghana. The panelists included:
- Sarah Juma, Founder & CEO, StyleID
- Rabiu Alhassan, Managing Editor, GhanaFact.com
- Sadiq Abdulai Abu, CEO, 3Music Networks
- Omar Majdoub, Co-Founder, Artificial Intelligence Association
After the last panel of the event, there were breakout sessions for Investment Readiness Workshop, Effective Use of Public Relations (PR) And Data in Marketing, and “Machine Learning and How Can Ghanaian Can Businesses Leverage It“.
After the break out sessions, a closing keynote was given by Akosua Annobil, founder of AB2020.
