MTN Ghana has reaffirmed its commitment to developing local talent and promoting inclusive artificial intelligence (AI) innovation through a series of initiatives aimed at empowering young Ghanaian innovators.
Kwame Manu, Senior Manager, Digital Analytics and Monetisation at MTN Ghana, said the company was investing deliberately and consistently in talent development to equip young people with the skills and opportunities to contribute to Ghana’s digital transformation.
Speaking at the MTN Ghana Tɛkyerɛma Pa Hackathon, Mr Manu said the future of AI in Ghana must be inclusive, accessible and developed by Ghanaians to address the needs of local communities.
He said MTN recognised that while telecommunications networks connect people, it was human talent that drove transformation, making investment in young innovators essential to the country’s progress.
As part of its efforts, MTN Ghana has instituted the MTN Ghana Digital Excellence Awards to recognise outstanding students and encourage innovation.
The initiative includes awards for the best graduating students, the best female student and the best AI project, with the latter designed to challenge students to apply their classroom knowledge to real-world problems.
Mr Manu said the award for the best female student was intended to encourage more young women to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), stressing that Ghana needed the contributions of all its talent.
He also described the best AI project award as an annual hackathon in its own right, providing students with an opportunity to develop solutions to practical challenges.
The MTN Ghana Tɛkyerɛma Pa Hackathon, which has brought together innovators from across the country, forms part of the company’s broader efforts to create opportunities for young people to develop and commercialise their ideas.
Mr Manu highlighted the importance of strategic partnerships in nurturing talent, citing MTN’s collaboration with Professor Elsie Kaufmann to organise an inter-divisional AI quiz within the company.
According to him, the partnership led to the development of a platform to manage scores for the competition by Michael, an intern recruited from T&S.
He said the quiz was a success and demonstrated how partnerships could create opportunities for students to apply their technical knowledge to practical projects.
He also cited MTN Ghana’s maiden Gaming Developer Contest, which was won by Derrick, another scholar from T&S, as evidence of the value of investing in emerging talent.
Mr Manu said the outcomes demonstrated how young people supported through partnerships could contribute to innovation and create value within the technology ecosystem.
He added that MTN Ghana intended to expand the opportunities available to young innovators through more initiatives, recognition and partnerships.
He urged participants in the hackathon to develop solutions that addressed the needs of different groups, including market women, visually impaired students, farmers and people who communicate primarily in local languages such as Twi, Ewe and Dagbani.
He challenged them to focus on building technology that improved lives and ensured that the benefits of AI reached every Ghanaian.
Mr Manu expressed appreciation to the University of Ghana and its Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Lab for the partnership, as well as the judges, organisers and other partners supporting the initiative.
