13 things Accra, Ghana needs to become a global technology winner

Accra, my second home for almost 20 years, is the thriving capital of Ghana, among the world’s friendliest, most dynamic cities. For many reasons I believe Accra has the potential to establish itself as a leading technology centre, with a difference.

I’ve written this blog to surface the positives and the drawbacks; but more importantly to record the key areas where change is needed. The ideas are not mine, they’re based on countless discussions and opinions provided by entrepreneurs, bloggers, business leaders from Accra, Lagos, London, New York and Silicon Valley from where I’m writing this at Facebook’s F8 developer conference.

Ghana sure has its problems — power, sanitation, traffic, healthcare, debt, currency fluctuations, climate change, and patchy levels of governance. But I love it, and so do most people who come to visit. Most Ghanaians that leave want to go back. It has some magic that’s hard to describe. Here are a few of the reasons people love living and working in Ghana:

Ghana is safe: it has a stable democracy that has seen several peaceful transitions of power since the 90s. Crime is no worse than any major city, certainly a lot safer than most in Nigeria, South Africa or Kenya.

Getting to Ghana is easy: Flying to Accra is quick and easy with direct flights from London, Amsterdam, New York, Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi, Dubai and many other major cities. It’s a little expensive, but not prohibitive.

Accra has a big, young, smart and energetic population. The city has the spirit of hope and a dynamic young population that have grown up connected to the world through the internet, social networks and mobile phones. The median age in Ghana is 21 and there were over 4 million people in the Greater Accra Region in 2010. My guess is there are a lot more today.

Primary education in Ghana is free, secondary will be soon, and there are many good universities. Secondary school education is due to become free in 2017. There are many international-standard universities in the country including government-run University of Ghana (Legon) and Ashesi — a private non-profit founded by an ex-Microsoft employee. Education is a core part of the culture.

In Ghana, Christians and Muslims get on well. This shouldn’t need to be a topic, but in today’s world, it is. I’m always so proud when I witness the mutual respect between Muslims and Christians. There is even a place of worship in Accra that combines both religions in a single building. Ghana has a balance that should be the envy of the world.

The city hosts big international businesses from Vodafone, MTN, Unilever, Guinness, Google, Nestle, Coca-Cola, the usual crop of banks like Standard Chartered and Stanbic, and accountancy companies like KPMG plus natural resource giants like Tullow and Cosmos.

Accra has great hotels; not always the cheapest, but from hostels to boutique outfits like La Villa in Osu and international five-star affairs such as Kempinski, there’s something for every budget.

Accra has a thriving arts and music scene. Live music has never been bigger in Accra; with distinctive home-brewed Afrobeats and Hiplife (Hiphop meets Hilife) to soul, jazz and everything between. Ghana has a creative identity of its own with internationally renowned artists and sculptors. Events such as the Chale Wote festival in Jamestown celebrate locally made everything once a year.

Ghana loves football. As they say, there is only one thing bigger than God in Ghana — the round ball. Ghanaian footballers play all over the world and the national side has had tremendous World Cup form regularly punching above their weight in South Africa and Germany. Football is everywhere.

Ghanaian food is the very definition of comfort food. Soups, stews, pounded staples, grilled fish and meats, and of course, Jollof (yes, it’s much better in Ghana than Nigeria). The only challenge is staying trim. But there are an increasing number of gyms and a focus on health and sports in the city.

And because of all of this, plus some I’m sure some I’ve forgotten:

Accra is home to a fertile tech start-up scene; giving birth to companies such as mPedigree who validate pharmaceuticals’ provenance, Rancard co-owned by Intel who provide information services over SMS to Telcos in the region and Busy Internet an early player in the local ISP scene. Impact Hub Ghana incubates tech startups, and Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) provides end-to-end training, mentorship and funding to software startups. And countless more big and small enterprises using technology one way or the other to do business.

Accra should play to its strengths, be confident and differentiate

Despite all of the positives, there are a set of conditions that impede Ghana’s tech-powered growth, and specifically hold back Accra’s evolution into a technology centre that will power economic growth and prosperity.

Ghana should not aim to be ‘just another’ outsourcing hub. That’s just about cheap labour, subject to global market forces like a commodity.

No, the key to sustained growth and fundamental social benefit is to build and grow big scalable business that own and control IP, thereby maximising revenue inflows as that IP is licensed, maximised and exploited globally without proportional costs.

With over 26 million people, Ghana is big enough to build profitable domestic businesses. But it does not have a big enough middle class to make logical business sense as the best place in Africa to start a consumer-facing tech businesses. South Africa, Lagos, Kenya all offer a bigger domestic markets.

Ghana should not try to emulate Lagos! Nigeria is home to an ever-growing consumer-facing startup scene and frankly stealing the limelight with the panache and swagger that Nigeria is so good at. So why compete when you can differentiate and play to your strengths? And why be intimidated by a country that is not even next door, but several streets away…Ghana needs to stand tall and be proud. Lagos is not the competition, it’s a partner. The real competition lies all around the world.

My view is that Ghana provides a fantastic environment to innovate in technology, validate new business models, and to work closely with big global businesses and well functioning public institutions.

Not without its draw-backs, delays and red-tape (more on that later), it is a lot easier to do business in Ghana than other African countries. Accra should be offering a conducive innovation environment for both startups and existing multinationals in many sectors including:

1. Energy
2. Heathcare
3. Business Finance and IT
4. Agriculture
5. Transportation

I’m sure there are many more.

However, there are several key areas the Ghanaian government and private sector must address in order to capitalise on the window of opportunity and to leave a lasting legacy to the next generation of smart Ghanaians.

All of what you just read was a long way of getting to the point — what is needed to make all this happen? Here is a starting point. I’d love to know what YOU think, and what tangible action can be taken to make it all happen.

13 Things Accra needs to address to win at tech

1. Fast, Cheap, Easy company registration. It is frankly ridiculous that setting up a company takes more than a few hours. Ghana must compete with the best countries for efficiency and make it possible to register a company within a day, ideally for free and done online. This has the added benefit of providing quantified data and tax receipts. Many people simply can’t be bothered and trade informally, reducing tax revenues.
2. Fast visas on arrival, and fast visas for talented employees. Not having visa on arrival might be a “tit for tat” measure against western countries, but it’s hindering freedom of doing business. Any tech business who can prove they’re struggling to hire locally should have the right to bring people in when needed.
3. Faster, more reliable internet. The fibre capacity is not bad but it needs to be much much better. Various companies including Google, Facebook and Vodafone are all working on this, but it needs to happen fast.
4. Reliable power. What a topic for Ghanaians. Dumsor (“On and off”) is the name of chronic electricity outages over the last few years and a major contributor to the downfall of the previous government. Surely Ghana should be relying on solar power, not relying on coal-burning power ships. This needs to be fixed, quickly, or nobody in their right mind will setup a new business in Accra. Could someone call Elon Musk? Maybe there’s a deal to be done.
5. More software engineering training facilities and education. Learning to code is not about doing a degree, it’s not about pieces of paper, it’s about actually learning to code. Those of us who code mostly learned from a very young age. My aunty taught me BASIC when I was 8.
6. World-class healthcare facilities. Healthcare in Ghana is generally terrible. God forbid you have an accident and need treatment after dark, or have a serious condition and don’t get lucky. We’ve all lost close friends and family due to poor healthcare and the time has come to shake things up. Ghana needs to radically improve its state hospitals, improve the national heath insurance scheme, and to setup a mini version of Dubai’s Healthcare city for private healthcare to attract international staff and returning Ghanaians. Why would I come back home to Ghana with my young family if I can’t trust they will be well looked after? This is key.
7. A “returnees” package. China has this locked down — if you’re a highly qualified, talented Chinese scientist or tech person and want to go back and start a business in one of their tech zones, they will make it worth your while. Ghana created some of the smartest minds, but many left Ghana long ago. As I said before, most Ghanaians would love to come home. My uncle is a top US government advisor on silicon chips — he lives in DC and Ghana needs him back. Getting him back means incentives, great housing, healthcare and of course, a well paid rewarding job.
8. Modern, fun working environments. There is no reason why Ghana cannot have dynamic, beautiful technology parks like those in Silicon Valley, London, Berlin or Dubai. In fact, Ghana should aim to do them better.
9. Leisure and sports facilities. Innovation can be mentally energetic but quite physically static. Providing top class sports and leisure facilities: tennis courts, football pitches and gyms is crucial to attracting the best talent.
10. Safe food. Food tastes great in Ghana, but food preparation standards are patchy. They must be enforced so that visiting clients, staff or others can enjoy themselves without the worry.
11. Tax incentives. While Ireland’s strategy of offering low corporation tax to American IT companies is flawed, it does attract big businesses and create jobs. Exchanging significant tax reductions for investment in innovation and local training could make a tremendous social and economic impact and speed up relocation or establishing innovation centres. Ultimately it will lead to greater tax receipts, it should be a no-lose situation.
12. Access to public and private sector piloting. For new businesses, having real-world reference customers is critical. Through a combination of formal and informal introductions, schemes and workshops, pairing new ideas with businesses and public institutions (e.g. hospitals, tax offices), that need them, can help those that are destined to fail, fail faster; and those that can succeed, succeed quicker. Ultimately Ghana should stop hiring big American or UK businesses to deploy government systems, and hire local. More employment, more knowledge, more taxes, more people to learn and start businesses.
13. Access to both capital, and companies to acquire! Informal investment from private “angels” is relatively common already, but seed and growth capital is hard to come by. The UK’s “EIS” scheme allow wealthy individuals to invest their cash with the ability to write-off losses and pay lower rates on gains. Along with R&D tax credits, effectively government hand-outs to companies that invest in building IP, it has significantly stimulated investment in UK businesses. There should be a version of this for Ghana to attract local and foreign high net worth individuals. But to invest in a business, funds want to see an exit; that means stimulating an eco-system of businesses that are ready to buy. So while enticing capital is important, so is enticing the big businesses that can afford to acquire tech companies that they can utilise or scale up globally.

What do you think?

If you read this far, you probably already care enough to contribute an idea or two. Please let me know what you think and let’s get things moving.

Huge thanks to: Karen, Clem, Mac, Fred, Martin, Eilo, Nat, Barz, Eugene, Yawa, Paul, Tony, Dorothy, Nana, Yaw and many others for your input and words of wisdom.

Tom McDonnell
CEO, Monterosa
tom@monterosa.co.uk