Ghanaian Tech Personalities To Watch In 2018

Ghana has a lot of potential when it comes to the technology space. There are a lot of brilliant and smart people working behind the scenes trying to build unique products and businesses.

At Tech Nova, we’ve singled out a couple of personalities that we think our readers should look out for next year in 2018.

Here’s our list of Ghanaian Tech personalities to watch in 2018:

Ivy Barley (Developers In Vogue)

Ivy Barley is the creator of Developers in Vogue, an entity which aims to create a community of highly skilled female developers. Ivy is also an advocate for empowering African women to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields.

This year, Ivy won the E-Skills for Girls Competition in Berlin and got a mentorship from Google.

It should be interesting to see what Ivy brings to the table next year in 2018.

 Kelvin Nyame (meQasa)

Recently, meQasa made big news with the acquisition of Jumia House. meQasa is an easy to use platform for Ghanaians to search for real estate and apartments.

CEO Kelvin Nyame has made lots of progress with meQasa this year and definitely has lots of momentum going into 2018.

With the Jumia acquisition in hand, tech readers should keep an eye on meQasa and Kelvin to see what they bring next year in the real estate market in 2018.

Cecil Nutakor (e-Campus)

From the bottom of the class and failing his SSCE exams to building a great innovative product, Cecil Nutakor is definitely one of those you should look out for in 2018.

The founder of eCampus has an interesting back story as well as a great product in eCampus, an online teaching and learning platform with social networking options that allows users (teachers & students) to interact and compare test scores.

Next year could be a big year for Cecil and eCampus. Readers should have eCampus on their radar in 2018.

Nana Prempeh (Asoriba)

Ghana is a religious country with lots of churches in almost every corner. Nana Agyeman Prempeh saw an opportunity to bring the Ghanaian church scene into the 21st century with technology. He did just that with his Asoriba solution. Asoriba is a church management solution which allows churches to electronically manage their congregation and allows for tithes to be paid electronically.

Asoriba is a big deal, winning numerous awards and expanding to more places in Africa.

Keep an eye on Prempeh and Asoriba as they try to build a bigger brand with their Asoriba solution next year.

Ehi Binitie (Rancard/Clearspace Labs)

Describing himself as a software executive and entrepreneur, Ehi Binitie’s specialities lie in product development and building software teams and technology in Africa. Eni is currently the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Rancard Solutions.

Ehi Binitie is also the founder of Clearspace Labs, a global Internet of things (IoT) start-up which is focused on helping the world utilize its resources better.

Will we be seeing innovative commercial products from Clearspace and Eni Bentil next year? We will just have to wait and see.

Francis Obirikorang (AgroCentra)

Agri-Tech is becoming a pretty big deal, especially in Africa. There are a lot of opportunities in the agriculture space and one of those companies taking advantage is Agrocentra. After winning numerous awards, including this year’s Seedstars Accra, Francis Obirikorang and his team at Agrocentra are have some momentum going into 2018 and could making a bigger splash in the coming year.

Lucy Quist

Lucy Quist is a prominent figure in the tech space in Ghana. Starting out from her early days at Ford Motor company before jumping into telecommunications where she worked at Millicom (Tigo), Vodafone and eventually became the CEO of Airtel.

After the merger of Airtel and Tigo, Lucy Quist decided to step down from the company.

It should be interesting to see where Lucy Quist subsequently ends up next year in 2018. Will she still be in telecommunications or move to another industry? Lucy Quist is definitely someone who we should keep an eye on in 2018.

Ethel D. Cofie (EDEL Technology Consulting)

Ethel Delali Cofie is the CEO and Founder of EDEL Technology Consulting and also the founder of Women in Tech Africa, Africa’s largest women in tech group. This year, Ethel debuted her Entrepreneur school program and partnered with MTN for Girl Code Bootcamp.

A strong advocate for girls and women in STEM and one of the most recognisable names in the tech industry in Ghana, Ethel Cofie is one of the tech personalities to look for in 2018.

Regina Honu (Soronko Solutions)

Regina Honu is a Ghanaian Social Entrepreneur, software developer and founder of Soronko Solutions, a software development company in Ghana.

Regina recently opened the Soronko Academy, the first coding and human-centred design school for children and young adults in West Africa.

She’s won numerous awards and has been named by CNN as one of the one the 12 inspirational women in STEM.

Regina Honu is definitely one to keep an eye on in 2018.

Roshi Motman (AirtelTigo)

Roshi Motman was the CEO of Tigo before the entity was merged with Airtel and subsequently became AirtelTigo. Following the merger of the two, Roshi Motman was appointed CEO of the new entity.

Although there are rumours of an Orange acquisition in the wind, Roshi Motman has some work to do next year with AirtelTigo next year in 2018 as they compete with MTN and Vodafone for subscribers.

Estelle Akofio-Sowah

Many refer to Estelle Akofio-Sowah as the “Google Lady”. Estelle was the Google Ghana country manager and previously was managing director of BusyInternet (Now Busy4G).

Estelle Akofio-Sowah is now at CSquared,  a rebrand of Google’s Project Link, a Google project which enables ISPs and MNOs to provide high-quality broadband at lower costs through shared infrastructure such as metro fiber and Wi-Fi networks.

It’s been quiet on CSquare’s end but 2018 could be the year where we hear more about their progress.