Ghana must move beyond training young people in digital skills and create the necessary ecosystem to help them commercialise their innovations and compete in the global digital economy, Deputy Chief of Staff for Administration and Finance, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo, has said.
She said Ghana had no shortage of technological talent, creativity and innovation but needed to provide the right environment for such talent to be discovered, nurtured and taken to scale.
Speaking at the opening of the 2026 National ICT Week, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo said the country was witnessing an emerging generation of young innovators who were increasingly turning to technology as a pathway to economic empowerment.
“Ghana does not lack talent. Ours as a government is simply to continue providing the enabling environment in which talent can be discovered, talent can be nurtured and talent can be taken to scale,” she said.
She pointed to the One Million Coders Programme as evidence of the growing appetite among young Ghanaians for digital skills.
According to her, the programme received 94,000 applications within 48 hours of its launch and had since expanded to 130 centres across all 16 regions.
She added that the initiative had attracted nearly 150,000 registered participants, reflecting the strong interest among young people in acquiring skills relevant to the global digital economy.
Nana Oye Bampoe Addo, however, stressed that skills development alone would not be enough.
She said Ghana must build a complete digital ecosystem in which young people could access funding, infrastructure, technology, mentorship and markets.
She called for stronger stakeholder engagement and a more supportive corporate tax and digitalisation regime to enable technology start-ups and young developers to grow.
“We must discourage heavy taxation because this makes it exceedingly difficult for new developers who are youth and startups to scale,” she said.
She cited Turkey as an example of a country that supports its technology sector by subsidising software licences, cloud hosting and app store commissions.
According to her, Ghana could adopt similar approaches to reduce the cost of doing business for technology entrepreneurs.
“Ghana can equally foster a very supportive financial ecosystem for tech. Let us empower these young entrepreneurs,” she said.
The Deputy Chief of Staff also highlighted the innovative capacity of Ghanaian students, citing a university student who had developed a low-cost artificial intelligence-powered cocoa disease detection tool.
She said such innovations could have significant implications for Ghana’s agricultural sector if given the necessary support to develop and reach farmers.
Beyond formal technology development, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo said Ghana’s creative economy was also benefiting from digital platforms.
She noted that Ghanaian TikTok creators were promoting the country’s culture internationally, while YouTubers were increasingly using digital platforms for education.
She said the film industry was similarly transforming digital platforms into new sources of income and employment.
Nana Oye Bampoe Addo therefore called for stronger partnerships between government, academia and industry to create opportunities for local innovators.
She said such partnerships must continue beyond the National ICT Week and become a permanent feature of Ghana’s digital development agenda.
She further urged stakeholders to support local innovators in commercialising their solutions while ensuring that regulation did not suppress creativity and fundamental human rights.
According to her, Ghana’s ultimate objective must be to transform its digital talent into sustainable businesses, jobs and globally competitive products.
She maintained that with the right ecosystem, Ghana’s young people could become a major force in Africa’s rapidly expanding digital economy.
