{"id":24950,"date":"2019-03-26T09:14:22","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T09:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=24950"},"modified":"2019-04-19T08:44:07","modified_gmt":"2019-04-19T07:44:07","slug":"technology-evolution-helping-ghana-become-the-hub-of-west-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2019\/03\/26\/technology-evolution-helping-ghana-become-the-hub-of-west-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology evolution helping Ghana become the hub of West Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Listed as among the top five fastest growing economics in Africa by the World Economic Forum, Ghana is rapidly establishing itself as West Africa\u2019s hub of choice. Supported by the government\u2019s regulatory reform strategies to boost investor confidence, Ghana\u2019s landscape is evolving and attracting more international players establishing themselves in the region.<\/p>\n<p>Foster Plender, Managing Director, AfricaOnline, Ghana&#8217;s leading ISP and a Gondwana International Networks (GIN) subsidiary, says the market is in an exciting phase.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe overall telecoms sector is gearing for a migration with increased network infrastructure investment in the fields of data centres, fibre to the X, 4G and high throughput satellites to deliver digital services and connectivity in even the remotest parts of the country,\u201d said Plender.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCustomers nationwide are digitally-savvy wanting the widest coverage, best connectivity, fastest speeds and of course affordable pricing. Service providers need to stay on top of changing technology to meet customer demands and retain them with excellent customer service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Accra has benefited from Google\u2019s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) laboratory, a new Tier IV data centre, and the sale, by Government, of 800 MHz spectrum will further enhance the Ghanaian digital landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next decade, Plender says that technologies such as Blockchain, IoT and Big Data will be fully realised.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe emergence of these tools has started to take form and we believe that they will gain more traction as the market continues to embrace digital innovation and disruption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGhana already has a track record of incubating entrepreneurial talent and we fully expect new IoT smart solutions relevant to Africa to evolve from our local market.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ghana\u2019s economy is dominated by a number of key market sectors. These include agriculture, education, financial services, mining, oil and gas, utilities and health.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese collectively are major contributors to the country\u2019s GDP, and technology will play a significant role in enabling services within these vital sectors to grow by solutions that will increase the ability to automate decisions, monitor progress, and take real-time actions for prevention of problems,\u201d said Plender.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the core of the evolving IoT world, using lots of data to solve everyday problems for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Agriculture, which includes fisheries and timber contributes over 20% of Ghana\u2019s GDP, is an important source of export earnings, while at the same time it provides the main income for the majority of the population. Plender says that the adoption of technologies such as IoT and AI will see not only this sector, but other major areas of the economy continue to dominate and play a significant role in the country\u2019s success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGhana can leverage technology to improve the performance of its most important sectors, including the improvement of government activities and services,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is also a current focus on developing technology-focused start-ups. These will, in time, become key market players and help drive digital transformation and overall growth of the country and wider region.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listed as among the top five fastest growing economics in Africa by the World Economic Forum, Ghana is rapidly establishing itself as West Africa\u2019s hub of choice. Supported by the government\u2019s regulatory reform strategies to boost investor confidence, Ghana\u2019s landscape is evolving and attracting more international players establishing themselves in the region. Foster Plender, Managing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":24952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,7383,843,328,136,19,260,13,262,9060],"tags":[165,5931,496,386,116,676,8769,708,8770,6158,622,390,8771,946,2765],"class_list":["post-24950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-digital-transformation","category-editors-choice","category-features","category-industry-expert","category-regional-news","category-regional-news-newsletter","category-top-stories","category-used","category-west-africa","tag-4g","tag-africaonline","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-big-data","tag-blockchain","tag-foster-plender","tag-ghana","tag-gin","tag-gondwana-international-networks","tag-google","tag-iot","tag-tier-iv-data-centre","tag-west-africa","tag-world-economic-forum"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24950"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24954,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24950\/revisions\/24954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}