Why Ghana must be intentional about AI adoption: Reflections on progress, people, and priorities

Why Ghana have to be intentional about AI adoption: Reflections on progress, folks, and priorities

I’ve been reflecting deeply on the accelerating position of synthetic intelligence (AI) and what it means for our society; not simply in concept or coverage, however in our on a regular basis lives.

The conversations round AI are inclined to really feel far faraway from the rhythms of each day existence in even our key cities of Accra, Kumasi, Tamale or Takoradi, however I consider we’re at a turning level, and we should select correctly.

The collision of worldwide tech and Ghanaian realities

Just lately, I got here throughout a tweet that stirred one thing in me. It referenced a LinkedIn remark by a South African lawyer, Sazi Tshangana, who wryly famous that whereas American legal professionals are panicking about being changed by AI, in elements of South Africa, intersections are nonetheless manned by human site visitors officers relatively than automated site visitors lights. It’s humorous, sure, but additionally profoundly telling.

The identical occurs in Ghana. I typically come throughout policemen and typically even neighborhood volunteers manually directing site visitors, even at intersections the place site visitors lights exist. It’s not all the time as a result of the infrastructure is absent; typically the lights are merely not working, or the state of affairs is simply too chaotic for automation to deal with. However deeper than that, it displays a form of belief in human discretion and presence. There’s one thing reassuring, even when inefficient, about seeing a uniformed officer utilizing hand alerts to carry order to morning rush-hour insanity. It’s a reminder that know-how doesn’t all the time substitute—it typically simply coexists.

And take into consideration how we deal with cash. Regardless of the proliferation of ATMs and cell banking apps, many Ghanaians nonetheless favor to withdraw money from cell cash (MoMo) distributors. Typically, these distributors are simply metres away from a financial institution or ATM. Why? As a result of it’s sooner, friendlier, and extra versatile. You don’t have to enter a PIN on a machine, you simply make a name or ship a code. You would possibly even chat with the seller about final night time’s soccer match whilst you wait. It’s transactional, sure, but additionally social. It’s not nearly comfort; it’s about consolation and familiarity.

A purely AI-driven monetary system—one which prioritises digital wallets, chatbots, and facial recognition over human interplay—would possibly really feel alien and even exclusionary to a big phase of the inhabitants.

These examples aren’t about technological backwardness. They reveal one thing deeper about how we navigate belief, neighborhood, and repair. AI, by its very nature, is constructed to optimize. However human life, particularly in Ghana, isn’t all the time about effectivity. Typically it’s about empathy. Typically it’s about flexibility. Typically it’s about being seen and heard.

The juxtaposition of first-world anxieties with third-world infrastructural realities reveals an vital reality: the dialog round AI can’t be divorced from context. And for Ghana, context is every part.

The promise: The place AI might remodel Ghana

Let’s begin with the potential. AI isn’t inherently unhealthy. In truth, it affords a number of the most enjoyable prospects for transformation we’ve seen in many years.

Take into account agriculture. With AI, we might develop precision farming instruments that assist farmers predict rainfall patterns, detect pest infestations early, and optimise yields. In a rustic the place agriculture stays the spine of our economic system – using over 30% of our workforce – that is no small achieve.

Equally, in healthcare, AI-powered diagnostic instruments may very well be game-changers, particularly in rural communities the place there’s a power scarcity of docs. My buddy, Darlington Akogo, is constructing one thing great within the area along with his minoHealth AI Labs.

And in training, adaptive studying platforms might assist bridge studying gaps for college kids in under-resourced colleges. I’ve come throughout a variety of budding platforms via the Mastercard Basis and the work of excellent buddy, Gerhard Malah at MEST.

Authorities initiatives: Steps, however not strides

The lately elected authorities of President John Mahama, who returned to workplace in January 2025, touches on AI in its 2024 manifesto, however in a restricted, focused style.

The Nationwide Democratic Congress (NDC) authorities guarantees to leverage AI to modernise public fiscal methods, enhancing transparency and effectivity in authorities. Extra ambitiously, the manifesto features a $3 billion Digital Jobs Initiative, aiming to coach a million youth in coding and digital abilities, and to develop Zonal ICT Parks as hubs for innovation, cybersecurity, and sure—synthetic intelligence. Ghana, they are saying, might grow to be a tech hub for the continent.

There has additionally been the unusual and unfathomable promise of utilizing AI to battle towards the menace of galamsey (unlawful mining); however frankly, I can not envisage how that might play out and even be initiated within the first place.

It’s a promising begin, but additionally telling in its narrowness. Whereas the federal government recognises AI’s position in income methods and youth employment, there’s no clear technique for what AI means for the broader economic system or casual sector. There’s silence on labour displacement, moral safeguards, or what it takes to make sure AI truly improves livelihoods for everybody, not simply the coders and builders.

And that’s the place my warning kicks in.

The peril: AI’s risk to Ghana’s financial cloth

Ghana is a rustic the place youth unemployment is already a ticking time bomb. Many college graduates spend years with out jobs, and even among the many employed, job safety is precarious. Casual work—market buying and selling, transport, home companies, and now hustles like Instagram outlets—stays the mainstay for hundreds of thousands.

AI threatens to automate giant swathes of this casual sector. Consider digital ride-hailing algorithms changing conventional taxi and tro-tro methods. Or AI-powered retail platforms undercutting small market merchants. Or automated supply bots changing dispatch riders.

In Silicon Valley, that is referred to as “effectivity.” In Ghana, it may very well be a catastrophe if not rigorously managed.

The trail ahead: A hybrid, humane method

This is the reason I consider Ghana’s method to AI have to be hybrid and humane. We should always construct methods which are good, but additionally deeply conscious of our social rhythms. We should always automate what is smart, however by no means at the price of what makes us who we’re.

And this have to be backed by coverage. We’d like a nationwide framework that goes past slogans about “AI for good.” We’d like concrete measures, beginning with correct labour protections—laws that forestalls wholesale displacement with out alternate options for affected staff. We’d like upskilling programmes past coding boot camps; sensible digital literacy for market ladies, drivers, and casual staff who kind the spine of our economic system.

Our training system wants a rethink too, revamping curricula from major to tertiary stage to arrange Ghanaians for an AI-augmented economic system. And let’s not neglect the significance of public consultations—common neighborhood dialogues to make sure AI growth displays native wants and considerations, not simply the priorities of tech elites. We have to be vigilant about bias prevention via energetic monitoring and regulation to forestall AI methods from reinforcing current inequalities in language, ethnicity, gender, or financial standing.

We have to put money into constructing native capability. We should always not merely import AI options from Silicon Valley and assume they may match Ghana’s realities. We’d like Ghanaian knowledge scientists, ethicists, policymakers, and entrepreneurs shaping our personal AI ecosystem.

Constructing a distinctly Ghanaian AI future

We can not afford to be passive adopters of AI. Nor ought to we blindly resist it out of concern. The way forward for work in Ghana will inevitably contain some automation, but it surely must also contain an enlargement of alternative, not its contraction.

Think about a future the place AI augments human work, relatively than replaces it. Image market ladies utilizing AI-enabled worth prediction apps to optimize their stock whereas nonetheless sustaining their stalls and social connections. Consider drivers utilizing good route ideas to make their journeys extra environment friendly, to not eradicate their jobs. Envision academics in rural colleges supported by AI tutors that assist personalize studying whereas preserving the important human steering that shapes younger minds. Take into account healthcare staff outfitted with diagnostic instruments that reach their attain into underserved communities, not substitute their judgment and care.

That future is feasible, however provided that we design it intentionally.

That is my enchantment: allow us to guarantee our AI journey is grounded in our values. Let or not it’s human-first, not machine-first. Let it mirror our cultural texture and financial actuality. Let or not it’s inclusive, moral, and adaptive.

Ghana has an actual shot at main the African AI dialog, however we should stroll with each ambition and warning. We have to be intentional about utilizing AI to reinforce what makes us Ghanaian—our neighborhood, our resilience, our ingenuity—relatively than eroding it within the title of progress.

I’m hopeful. However I’m additionally watchful. And I consider all of us needs to be.

PS: My cowl picture was generated by AI with a very intelligent immediate

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