Since the founding of the Ghana Tech Summit in 2017, a lot of renewed interest has poured into the country’s tech economy. As more Ghanaians go online, services across the world have committed to building infrastructure here. One is the Africa Data Center, a pan-African service that intends to use the internet to connect the continent. This year, they announced the building of new cloud facilities in Accra. This initiative is supported by the US Development Finance Corporation, a government program that funds infrastructure across the world. This is just the latest in a long line of events, explained below.

 

Ghanaians Embrace The Internet


Even without intervention by the government or large companies, Ghana is slowly going online thanks to its young population. Being online is commonplace for modern work and entertainment, so it makes sense that new generations would embrace this technology. Ghana’s internet penetration rate is close to 70%, higher than many other African nations.

That’s higher than Nigeria (at approx. 60%) which already leads Africa economically. They also have a booming tech economy where many services are available over the internet, mostly informative and entertaining content. Along with obvious economic benefits, customers get access to services like Promotion NG that compare sports betting providers in Nigeria, so customers can find the best options for them. The internet does this for many industries, enabling consumers to access information they didn’t have before. Just like with Nigeria, it will help Ghanaian citizens too by offering convenient entertainment and enabling them to be better informed.

Google & Big Tech Investments


It was Google who was the first big name to move into Ghana following the Ghana Tech Summit. This came in 2018, where Google Research opened a center for AI and machine learning in Accra. Of course, this technology has exploded in the intervening years and brought a lot of attention to Ghana as a result.

Uber is another popular tech startup that has been active in Ghana for a while, before the 2017 Tech Summit launched. Like they have done elsewhere, Uber’s entrance into the Ghanaian market revolutionized travel around population hubs like Accra, Kumasi, and Takoradi. It created a lot of jobs for Ghanaians while demonstrating how, using a smartphone and an internet connection, tech economies can make life a lot less complicated.

These companies have inspired a homegrown industry of Ghanaian tech startups too. While outside investment will benefit Ghana and other African nations, it’s best when Ghanaian companies find success within their own borders and leave their mark on the world. Through the growing tech economy in Accra, this will become a reality in the future.

Accra’s New Data Center


So many tech startups and other online ventures require infrastructure. Fortunately, that’s where Africa Data Centers has stepped in. After buying land in Accra’s business district, they have announced that a new data plant will be built. Africa Data Centers is part of the Cassava Technologies Group, which is headquartered in London but has put down roots in Nigeria and other technologically capable African nations.

The new data center will be built to support 10 megawatts of IT hardware, mainly servers hosting and storing information for public and private online services. Data centers are key to modern tech infrastructures, explained here by HowStuffWorks.

However, those behind the project have said that it is possible, and likely, that the facility will upgrade to an even bigger 30 megawatt data center. If that happens, it will become one of the largest non-Nigerian buildings in West Africa. Besides putting Ghana on the map, it’s expected to uplift and support our growing tech economy into the foreseeable future and beyond.