Author: Shepherd Yaw Morttey

The Tech niche in Ghana is gaining good grounds month after month, especially with wonderful Individuals like yourself reading what’s going on here on Mfidie.com and with the investment of the hardworking men and women and organisations who keep doing great stuff for the tech culture.

Kudos!

2018 has been a great year for the techies and non-techies alike in Ghana as we have had more tech only focused events more than ever. We have also had movements and communities wake up and embrace tech as a whole.

Consumers, on the other hand, have been more interested in gadgets and have used many tech blogs locally to inform their purchasing decisions.

The government also does not seem to be left out, and even though some of its projects have raised questions, it is generally a good feeling to see digitalisation from the government.

Today, we would recap some of the notable happenings in Ghana’s tech space over the last twelve months. Hope you enjoy it and keep your comments coming – we might have missed some juicy stuff.

Gadgets

Probably the biggest aspect of tech that a lot of Ghanaians are involved in. We would focus on OEMs who specifically target the Ghanaian Market.

Infinix Ghana started the year with the Infinix S3. Later in the year, the S3X, Hot 6, Hot 6 Pro and the Hot 6X all followed.

No big differences were in the variants, especially on the side of aesthetics, except for some with notches and some didn’t.

By the way, a lot of us were expecting to see a launch of the Infinix Zero 6 this year. However, it appears we have to wait till 2019.

Nokia is probably the unsung hero in 2018 when it comes to gadgets this year. With phones for all budgets, users and purposes, we saw the launch of the Nokia 2.1, Nokia 3.1, Nokia 5.1 all coming unto the market.

The beginning of the year saw the introduction of the powerful Nokia 8 too. And the Nokia 6.1 (a personal favourite) was released in the last quarter of this year.

Nokia has focused on popular all screen design, powerful processing speed and stronger battery life while also largely committing to Android one.

We started off this year by announcing that TECNO Mobile was looking at releasing 3 Oreo phones very early in 2018. Well, we got more than 3 phones.

By December of 2018, The Tecno Camon CM, Tecno Camon X and X Pro, the TECNO Spark 2 and the Tecno Camon 11 and 11 Pro were all released.

Competition Wins for Ghana

Outside the country, Ghanaian Startups and companies are winning big in competitions. Super proud!

In November 2018, Ghanaian-registered technology company – Henson Geodata Technology came second place out of 20 finalists throughout the continent at the 2018 Feed the Future Fall Armyworm Tech Prize in Cape Town. Famerline also Ghana-based won $50,000 in the same competition.

Dext Technology also won the $100,000 prize for their innovative Science Set – a mini science lab that contains materials and components to enable students to carry out basic experiments. The Awards ceremony took place at the African Union ‘Innovating Education in Africa Expo’, in Dakar, Senegal. Bringing together innovators, educators and policymakers from across the continent.

Two Ghanaian start-ups, AkooBooks Audio and Neat Eco Foods also won $125,000 from a $1million prize pool at the 4th edition of the African Entrepreneurship Award Program held in Casablanca, Morocco in December 2018.

“Hewale” a Ghanaian complete online hospital app developed by Orcons Systems Ltd won the most promising healthcare tech company of the year at the 2018 West African Healthcare Excellence Award.

MEST EITs also won Ghana’s first NASA Space Apps Challenge. During the hackathon, they worked on a mobile application that allows users to upload pictures and locations of wildfires in order to alert the community and stop them from spreading.

Government In Tech

In recent times, the Government of Ghana has been looking at tech as a strong force. The Vice President, in particular, has eyed digitalising the country.

In 2018, the Government continued to do more, building on 2017’s efforts.

The Ministry of Business Development set eye on eCommerce by the launch of the Ghana Online Mall. It is supposed to serve as a directory for all businesses that will sign up onto the platform and make it possible for local vendors to sell hard-to-find handmade Ghanaian products. As at the time of writing this, there were 89 registered businesses in the directory.

In October, the government set up Tech Innovation Hub at Accra Digital Centre. The Ghana Innovation Hub will function as an incubation space with co-working space, suited for start-ups and entrepreneurs, with a large events space for hosting events that will attract more established firms.

Still, in October the National Cyber Security Awareness Month for 2018 was marked in Accra. The event was organised by the National Cyber Security Centre and the Ministry of Communications. The event was under the theme “A safer Digital Ghana”, was attended by members of the diplomatic corps, ministers of state, government officials, relevant state institutions and agencies among others.

Award Ceremonies

Hard work deserves recognition. In 2018, more tech targeted award schemes were held.

Let’s start with what has now become one of the industry’s most prized honours.  GITTA 2018, which focused on Fintech saw awards in different categories with MTN winning a total of 12 awards.

There was also the maiden edition of the Ghana eCommerce Awards which was held to recognise and award those making it in the eCommerce sector. Melcom Online, ZoobaShoop and Flutterwave emerged as some of the biggest winners on the night.

The Maiden Mobex Innovation Awards was also held to honour enterprises and individuals transforming lives using technology. The awards set out to be very credible with judges made up of academics, industry experts, public officials, the private sector, entrepreneurs, company directors and scientists from around the African continent.

More Tech

There were other big events like the Tech in Ghana Conference 2018, Ghana Tech Summit and the Women in Tech Week 2018 which altogether brought leaders and learners in the tech space to learn and share ideas as well as celebrate achievements.

Also in the year, the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology – MEST, announced seven startups receive $700,000 in total funding. This investment coincided with its 10th anniversary. The startups were ShareHouse, Nvoicia, Truckr, Jumeni, Judy, CodeIn and Bace.

Mfidie.com

Thank you for trusting us to deliver the best in tech for you in Ghana and beyond. This year, we reached new heights with over 1 million unique visitors and 3.7 million page views, together, we have made a statement that tech can be a standalone niche in Ghana.

Much thanks to all the other tech blogs in Ghana keeping the niche alive: AccraConnect.com, GeekieWorld.com, Gharage.com, JBKlutse.com, KwesiArko.com, PCBossOnline.com, TechHabor.com, TechLifeGhana.com, TechNovaGh.com, TechTodayGh.com and TechVoiceAfrica.com.

Did we miss any stuff you think should have been here? Kindly let’s hear you in the comments.

Happy New Year!

Dubbed, the “Sanitation Hackathon,” the competition brought together programme developers, Information Technology specialists and sanitation advocates, to come up with digital solutions on how to effectively and efficiently manage the country’s waste management problems.

Held on the theme: “Managing waste through hacking,” the event was put together by the ministry with support from the World Bank.

The contest received 300 applications, out of which 35 teams were selected for the final stage, which was organised from November 17 to 19, 2018 at the Alisa Hotel in Accra.

The participants, judges and some officials from the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources

The various teams made presentations on their developed mobile Apps and defended why their Apps could help address the sanitation challenges in the country.

At the end of the competition, the first placed team, which developed an App called “Nsuo” received US$5,000, tablets, and a six-month data package from Surfline.

The second and third-placed teams, Beamers and Sani-GH received US$3,000 and US$2,000 respectively in addition to tablets and six months data packages from Surfline.

Also, teams that displayed commitment and creativity in their works were honoured with special awards. They were Team Kijani, Smart Team and Sani-GH Team.

While Team Kijani was awarded the Most Innovative Solution, Smart Team and Sani-GH were awarded the Promising Solution and Good Teamwork respectively.

In a speech read on her behalf, the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Mrs Cecilia Abena Dapaah stressed the need for an increased awareness on safe disposal of human excreta through the use of improved household toilets.

She said as part of efforts to improve the sanitation situation in the country, the ministry through the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) Sanitation and Water Project, has constructed 13,500 household toilets, adding that the project “is expected to construct an additional 7,000 toilets by the middle of 2019.”

Mrs Dapaah further indicated that the GAMA project would construct 406 institutional toilets in 246 schools across the Greater Accra Region to ensure that open defecation is eradicated in the beneficiary schools.

Touching on the competition, she said, the ministry “in collaboration with the World Bank and Information Technology Partners is organizing the Sanitation Hackathon to leverage on technology to solve some of the sanitation challenges” in the country.

“Technology is playing a significant role in addressing some of the developmental challenges in the country,” Mrs Dapaah said, noting that “Integrating Information Technology in sanitation is, therefore, a step in the right direction.”

She, however, called on the media to galvanize support for the ministry to reach the majority of Ghanaians with the needed messages that “will bring about change in the attitudes, behaviour and practices which are the bane of the sanitation challenges we are currently facing as a country.”

The Chief Director of the Ministry of Sanitation, Mr Anthony Mensah commended the contestants for their dedication and innovativeness in coming out with digital solutions to the country’s sanitation challenges, particularly on how to manage solid waste.

He said the ministry would critically examine all the best ideas that were offered by the participating teams as part of the goal of making the country the cleanest city in Africa.

The participants, judges and some officials from the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources

The Chief Executive Officer of the Soronko Academy, Regina Honu, who chaired the judges for the competition, said all the ideas presented by the various teams were good and therefore urged the participants not to relent on their efforts in helping the country to solve its sanitation problems.