As Ghana welcomes 2026, I extend warm new year greetings to all Ghanaians with hope and determination. We stand at a defining moment.
The Accra Digital Centre hums with possibility. Twenty-eight companies occupy our workspace, building solutions that range from fintech platforms to agricultural technology. Walk through our corridors and you witness the future being coded, designed and launched.
This vision, brought to life by President John Dramani Mahama through the establishment of Ghana Digital Centres Limited and the Accra Digital Centre, represents a transformative commitment to Ghana’s digital future. Our track record speaks volumes, over five hundred startups supported, more than three thousand jobs created, and ten thousand young people trained in digital skills.
Yet this concentration of opportunity in one location represents both our achievement and our unfinished business.
Last year proved transformative at Ghana Digital Centres Limited. We hosted over sixty tech events, from the ENJOY AI African Open robotics competition that brought hundreds of young innovators together, to the TikTok for Creators Education Day that empowered digital content creators.
In October, Parliament’s Select Committee on Communications and Digital Technology visited, witnessing firsthand how we are transforming Ghana’s digital landscape one startup, one job, one trained youth at a time.
We partnered with the University of California, Los Angeles to train eighteen entrepreneurs through an intensive six-week programme. From fifty-eight applicants across the country, we selected participants hungry to transform ideas into viable enterprises.
The winner, Esther Addu, developed SPINE, a solar-powered irrigation system using artificial intelligence to help women farmers in Northern Ghana overcome water scarcity and unpredictable rainfall. Her solution addresses climate adaptation whilst boosting crop yields and incomes.
But here lies the uncomfortable truth, Esther had to come to Accra to access the training, mentorship and ecosystem that helped refine her solution for the very region she serves.
Additionally, our partnerships with institutions from KNUST’s Computer Engineering Department to Rwanda’s Kigali Innovation City, from Heritage Christian University to international organisations like Luvent Consulting, have expanded our reach and impact.
We have mentored and celebrated innovators like Bubune Biana Bottozah, who placed second at Ms Geek Africa 2025 with ECO WATCH, her artificial intelligence system to combat illegal mining.
Yet we are operating at sixty per cent capacity, and the demand for our facilities continues to grow.
Imagine if we could replicate this success in Tamale, where agri-tech innovators are already developing solutions for the agricultural belt that feeds our nation.
Picture a digital centre in Takoradi becoming the maritime technology hub for West Africa, or Kumasi emerging as the continent’s craft digitisation capital.
The question is not whether our model works. The question is how we extend this proven success beyond Accra’s boundaries.
When Teacher Morphia Atatsi welcomed us to Bleamezado School in the Volta Region last October, his eyes held a question we could not ignore: will this really happen?
He was learning robotics to teach his students, investing his own time and resources, knowing that digital skills would determine their future prospects. His doubt was not about commitment but about reach. How many teachers like Morphia are waiting in Tamale, Sunyani, Takoradi and Koforidua, wondering if the digital revolution will arrive before their students are left behind? How many solutions like SPINE remain undeveloped because their creators lack access to the infrastructure that exists only in Accra?
The case for regional digital centres is not merely about equity, though that matters profoundly. It is about unlocking the full potential of Ghanaian innovation through strategic partnerships and context-driven development.
Our collaboration with UCLA demonstrated what becomes possible when we combine Ghana’s talent with global expertise and structured support.
Our partnership with BOSAG shows how digital centres can anchor entire ecosystems of business process outsourcing services, creating hundreds of jobs. Meanwhile, our deputy CEO Christine Ansong Esq.’s recent mission to Rwanda in October yielded concrete collaboration models with Kigali Innovation City, Norrsken House Kigali, FabLab and kLab on infrastructure development, startup incubation and digital skills training.
These partnerships should not benefit only Accra. A digital centre in Wa, partnering with agricultural research institutions, could become the innovation engine for the Upper West Region’s farming communities. A centre in Ho, collaborating with the Volta Regional Coordinating Council, could transform the tourism and creative industries through digital tools.
A centre in Sunyani, working with timber and cashew processors, could revolutionise value addition in the Bono Region.
The digital economy does not respect regional boundaries. A young developer in Techiman can build applications for clients in Toronto. A designer in Ho can create for markets in Hamburg.
But only if we provide the infrastructure, training and ecosystem that transforms potential into performance. Only if we offer them the same world-class event spaces, the same maker labs, the same networking opportunities, the same access to international partnerships that entrepreneurs in Accra increasingly take for granted.
Consider the economics. Accra’s success proves the model works. The Accra Digital Centre has become a magnet for tech companies, creating jobs and generating economic activity that ripples through the local economy.
Now multiply that impact across sixteen regions.
Consider the reduction in migration pressure as young people find opportunities in their home regions. Factor in the solutions that will emerge when entrepreneurs deeply understand local challenges because they live them daily.
In Tamale, imagine young innovators developing solar-powered cold storage solutions for tomato farmers, reducing post-harvest losses that cost Ghana millions annually.
In Takoradi, picture marine engineers creating digital platforms that connect artisanal fisherfolk directly to urban markets. In Kumasi, envision designers using digital fabrication tools to scale traditional kente patterns for global fashion houses whilst preserving cultural authenticity.
In fact, consider the economic activity generated when regional capitals can host national tech conferences, international delegations and innovation showcases that currently bypass them entirely. The infrastructure exists in frameworks and plans. What we need now is the political will, the private sector investment and the development partner support to operationalise it sustainably.
This is not about recreating Accra sixteen times over. Each regional centre must reflect its context serving, the specific economic activities, cultural strengths and development priorities of its area whilst connecting to a national network of innovation. Critics, will say we should consolidate rather than expand, that quality matters more than coverage. They are right about quality but wrong about the choice. We can do both. We must do both.
The Accra Digital Centre’s success came through careful planning, strong partnerships and consistent quality. We will bring the same rigour to regional centres. The question is not whether Ghana can afford regional digital centres but whether we can afford to leave talent undeveloped, problems unsolved and regions behind.
Every month we delay represents opportunities lost, innovations unrealised and potential squandered. Every tech event we cannot accommodate. Every startup that cannot access facilities. Every partnership we cannot host because of space constraints. Every young person who cannot afford to travel to Accra for opportunities. Every Teacher Morphia who wonders if the promise of digital transformation will ever reach his students.
As we begin our anniversary year, Ghana Digital Centres Limited commits to making 2026 the year we expand our impact beyond Accra’s boundaries. We are deeply grateful to our sector Ministry, the Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation, led by Hon. Sam Nartey George, for the continuous support that enables us to deliver on our mandate.
The Minister’s commitment to ensuring that digital infrastructure reaches every corner of Ghana aligns perfectly with our vision for regional expansion.
We participated in the nationwide validation workshops for the Ghana Innovation and Start-Up Bill in October, understanding that legislative support must work hand in hand with physical infrastructure. We are working with government, development partners and private sector allies to bring the digital revolution to every region.
Join us in pushing for digital centres in every region. If you are a policymaker, prioritise the operationalisation of regional digital infrastructure in your planning and budgeting. If you are a private sector leader, consider how investment in regional digital centres aligns with your business growth and corporate social responsibility objectives. If you are a development partner, engage with us on sustainable models for regional expansion.
If you are an educator, entrepreneur or concerned citizen, add your voice to the demand for inclusive digital development. Teacher Morphia’s question deserves an answer. Esther’s success demands replication across all sixteen regions. The eighteen entrepreneurs we trained last year should be followed by hundreds more in Tamale, Takoradi, Kumasi, Ho, Sunyani and beyond.
The sixty tech events we hosted should become six hundred, spread across the country, creating opportunities wherever talent exists. Our achievement of supporting five hundred startups, creating three thousand jobs, and training ten thousand young people must be multiplied across every region. The future is not something that happens to us. It is something we build, deliberately and inclusively, ensuring that a young person’s postcode does not determine their potential.
Ghana’s digital future must be a shared prosperity, not a concentrated privilege.
That future begins now, and it must reach everywhere. To all Ghanaians, I wish you a happy and prosperous 2026. The possibilities are new, but the imperative is timeless: develop all our people, in all our regions, for the opportunities of tomorrow.
Anything less is a future half-built. Let us build it together.
