Ghana Tech Startup Ecosystem
Ghana ranks highly among African countries for ICT use. There is a vibrant, and geographically disbursed startup ecosystem that is developing solutions across numerous sectors. There are more than 100 tech hubs and accelerators spread across Ghana with a concentration in Ghana’s three biggest cities, Accra/Tema, Kumasi, and Takoradi. Among top examples are MEST and Impact Hub in Accra, Kosmos Innovation Center in Kumasi, and Node 8 in the Volta region. There are also several dedicated business chambers, including the Ghana Chamber of Young Entrepreneurs, the Ghana Hubs Network, and the Ghana Startup Network, among others.
Ghana’s Strengths
Ghana’s traditional strengths in terms of ICT startup activities have been in:
• Fintech, where ICT payment platforms and apps have helped to bring unbanked citizens into the financial sector and play a major role in remittances payments;
• ECommerce, where specialized marketplaces have emerged for online shopping;
• Agtech, where local companies seek to tackle challenges in Ghana’s largest sector by employment, including last mile payments, supply chain, weather forecasting, fertilizer use and planting forecasting, and marketing, among other issues;
• Artificial intelligence, where a homegrown AI champions, MinoHealth AI labs is automating medical diagnosis and prognosis, and forecasts for pneumonia, malaria, tuberculosis, for example;
• Other Medtech portals and apps to identify health services and supplies and improve health outcomes, and
• Proptech, where startups are servicing Ghana’s booming real estate sector with marketing and value assessment.
Policy Framework
In terms of official Ghanaian Government policy support for tech startups, the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme provides skills training, incubation, and policy support for ICT and other (industrial or agriculture startups). The office of Diaspora Affairs in the Presidency also promotes the tech ecosystem, including its linkages to international partners. A joint private sector and Government group is developing a draft Startup Law. The latest draft text can be viewed here.
Challenges
The domestic and international finance environment continues to be the biggest challenge to the further development of startups in Ghana. Young entrepreneurs’ ability, in particular, to raise initial capital is constrained as personal and family finances often have been diminished in the preceding years of inflation and financial crisis. Meanwhile, domestic borrowing rates remain above 30%, and the international venture capital environment has also cooled due to higher global interest rates. On the other hand, there has been strong support of the hubs and individual startups’ research, incubation, and launch efforts by international donors, private foundations, and private companies (including several U.S. companies).
Opportunities for U.S. Companies:
• Help existing Ghanaian startups to further develop and scale within Ghana and wider Africa;
• Partner with local Ghanaian companies to introduce new Web 3.0 services such as AI driven services, decentralized data infrastructure, and edge computing infrastructure; and
• Help develop a Multiple List Service type of system that would make real estate transactions more transparent.
Industry Events
There are several annual industry events that bring together this local ecosystem for policy discussions and to share latest technology developments, offerings, and forecasts. U.S. companies can partner with CS Ghana to participate in events such as:
• Tech In Ghana, November 26-27, 2024
• Ghana Tech Summit, TBD late 2024
For more information about Ghana’s tech startup ecosystem, contact Victoria Agbai or Laurie Kelleher at: Office.Accra@trade.gov or Telephone +233(0)30-274-1870. Please see our Country Commercial Guide and our wide range of market intelligence reports available on our website at www.trade.gov/ghana.