Just as mobile money is drawing more people into the financial spectrum, technology hubs or the more familiar name “tech hubs”, possibly are steadily driving Ghana’s ICT inclusion.
Ghana’s tech ecosystem houses 24 active tech hubs, according to the GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator in March 2018, as against 16 in 2016; where Africa has a total of 442 active hubs, an indication that the country has grown eight more active hubs over the past two years.
While this may be progress for Ghana, it is just a small leap compared to other countries like South Africa and Nigeria with 59 and 55 active hubs respectively.
From incubation to acceleration programmes, to co-working spaces, event space and seed funding; just about what many tech hubs in Ghana do in a bid to drive entrepreneurship and innovation.
“We are passionate about the intercession of technology, entrepreneurship and locally relevant problem solving. In that regard we offer a space for start-ups who need a place to work and to market. We also do training, consultancy and different ICT for development,” Florence Toffa, managing director of Mobile Web Ghana tells of what her hub does.
Dropifi, a tech start-up founded by three Ghanaian young men after joining the meltwater entrepreneurial school of technology (MEST), in 2013 was the only all African company to join the Silicon Valley based 500 start-up programme.
Like the former, Leti Arts, a gaming tech start-up also birth at MEST, was the winner of the Africa entrepreneurship awards in 2015, winner of Vodafone AppStar competition in 2014, African Top Innovator Award in 2008 and other awards.
For others like Soronko Academy, they may not necessarily be engaged as tech hubs, however they equally train young people to code, which for a good start, introduces young children to early innovation.
The GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator report accounts the growth in African tech hubs from 314 in 2016 to 442 in 2018 for three reasons. First, it says several tier-2 ecosystems and new ecosystem cities have sprung up across the African region as internationally attractive technology centers.
The second it says, funding raised by tech start –ups across the continent surged, citing that African tech start-ups alone have raised 53% more venture capital funding in 2017 at $560 million and a $20.4 million by Ghanaian start-ups. Third it says, several tech hubs have narrowed down their offerings and targeted specific niches lawed business models.
There is real estate for tech entrepreneurs in Ghana, with the backing of little pockets of seemingly Silicon Valley centers. For the most part however, government intervention is minute.
A great deal of these tech hubs are even privately managed and externally financed by organizations outside of Africa. In April 2018, on a visit to Silicon Valley, Vice President, Dr Bawumia, was reported to have said that ICT had to be the driver force of the Ghana beyond aid agenda.
Similarly, the minister of business development, Ibrahim Awal earlier this year, said government was putting in place a GHC 20 million fund support for start-ups, to be channeled through tech hubs as part of its flagship National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP). But Florence Toffa believes government has to do more.
“I think that there’s a lot that the government has to do to be able to unleash creativity and innovation across the country’; and one of them is to be able to actively involve tech hubs in their decision making,” she stated.
Elsewhere in east Africa, iBizAfrica a tech hub, was consulted by the Kenyan ministry of trade and cooperatives for recommendations on how to work with innovators and entrepreneurs. According to a March 2017 research report by Nanjira Sambuli and J. Preston whit, iBizAfrica was one of the hubs that worked with the ICT authority of Kenya to set up the government’s open data portal, the Kenyan Open Data Initiative and worked with the Kenyan national bureau of statistics on its data visualization port.
There’s no doubt that a heavy ICT inclusion can create impactful development that would additionally move investors into the country. Two thousand (2000) people from the world over move into Silicon Valley every month.
“Tech hubs today are efficient vehicles not only to attract capital and expertise but to lead the very debate around technology and progress,” GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator report has indicated.
By: Gifty Danso, intern
