Ghana Tech Is Rising… But Most Startups Won’t Make It - Here’s Why

Yareki Ofori: So when you see these faces and you see the setup, you know we are about to have some good interesting and insightful conversation. You're welcome to Building Bytes where we tell relevant stories about Ghana's data ecosystem to fuel innovation and drive the growth of our uh, digital economy. And as usual this show is proudly brought to you by Insight Lab with production support for from Hubtel, recorded in the Hubtel Academy. And if you don't know, Building Bytes airs on MX24 every Thursday at 8pm and repeat on Sunday at 7pm you do not want to miss it. Okay, so my name is Yareki Ofori and I'm here with my amazing co

Caleb Lampte: host Caleb Lampte, Dennis Enim and Poga Coffee.

Yareki Ofori: So before we even get to this episode, as we know this is our premiere episode, um, the theme for this season, all of that I want us to um, unpack a launch that took place I think last week, Friday, that was the 24th of April where we had his Excellency President John Dramani Mahama launching the national AI strategy where they are betting $270 million on um, I think a 10 year roadmap to make Ghana an AI powerhouse in Africa. So I'm going to have that conversation with my co host because I believe that it was an interesting initiative that the government has come up with. It reflects that we have a government that is foresight, forward thinking and visionary. But personally I think that's one of my thoughts when I heard about this launch was execution how that is going to play out because we even have the 1 million program which was about trading at least 300,000 Ghanaians.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah.

Yareki Ofori: I think it's in this hour Skills. Yes. That's been launched, was launched last year by Hon. Sam George and now we've launched another AI initiative. It's great, it's amazing. But how is execution? Are we sure that in 2035 we are actually going to achieve um what this initiative is for? So what's, what are your thoughts on that?

Guest: There's also the Fintech fund right? That's like 50 million.

Caleb Lampte: Yes. I don't think that has been released program um, has been launched with Google as well. So that's happening. Some hubs are coming as partners. Um, clearly you can see that the execution plan for the, the whole projects, the whole go. I mean the whole program has been set well and uh m. We having like good partners on board. I mean trustworthy partners on board. Also not forgetting the. The team or the board or. Yeah. Or the team that worked on the AI Strategy. They are clearly executioners, um, working from various aspects. Government, academia, academia and all that industry. So you can clearly see that um, I mean everybody's working to bring the nation on a certain path. Um, it will take time to um, judge whether we've been truthful to that path, but I think it's a good direction we are taking us as a country and yeah, we are hoping to see the best well done from the minister.

Yareki Ofori: So you feel that with a team in place we are likely to get execution rights?

Caleb Lampte: Yeah, I think we've implemented something already like the Google program who is already running. So clearly uh, one program has been delivered which can reach as much as, as many people as possible even to like the million people or whatever. That program can reach all these people with quality content, like kind of variable certificates and uh, something to add on, I mean an additional skill. So I think that's on a, on a good trajectory. We're looking to see how best, how it ends. Yeah.

Yareki Ofori: I also believe those initiatives are making like it's making a adoption in Ghana quite easier and the acceptance is getting better.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah.

Guest: Awesome. Uh, my thoughts, I mean one of the people that are part of the road today as ah, Strategy Darlington, we have him later on on an episode this season. So I mean he's worked in the industry for a while. Um, he's you know, understand the industry a lot. So I think it gives confidence to the whole strategy. Um, I'm looking to see how their implementation play out. Maybe companies like his get to play a forefront role in championing AI in Africa and Ghana, um, in general and also um, get to support other AI companies that are coming up, um, to build much more um, successful AI company. But my thoughts, maybe 250 million from the government. Maybe. I'm thinking this is what the government and a couple of other partners are committing. But I would think we need more than 250 million. Um,

Caleb Lampte: but so far I think the number I'm seeing 250.

Guest: We need more than that to you know, champion AI.

Guest: Yeah.

Guest: Looking at AI in other, you know, countries.

Caleb Lampte: Yes.

Guest: You're talking about billions.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah, billions of dollars.

Guest: Some ottoman is raising like a billion tens of billions or hundreds of billions to open AI and both other um, general intelligence, basically, um, AGI. So I am thinking maybe this is seed money to attract more capital into um, the AI sector in Ghana. And um, hopefully we would have that impact that we're looking for in 2035. I think generally this government has been more um, efficient in delivering um, programs. Uh, so I think their trust is very high and given the partners they are working with, I think there will be a lot of, you know, check and balances. Although sometimes they work with international companies and we don't see much results. Just execute and you know, program strip M. But hopefully this one will be a little bit different and they've shown their political appetite to make it a little bit much more different. I think the President is like it's the last time. Most politicians, their last time, they don't care much. But I think this one wants to leave a legacy. Yes. He's putting in the work alongside his team. So all the best. Uh, I think maybe they should channel some of the money.

Yareki Ofori: Like officials and like the ministers to go for an AI boot camp.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah.

Yareki Ofori: So that they understand, they understand the whole concept about AI. But yeah, that's I believe awesome and it's a good thing for our nation and Ghana and I believe for Ghana's tech ecosystem. So now coming to this episode, coming to the conversation for this episode, a new season which we themed Ghana's Tech Rising where we follow the people, the companies and the technologies that are moving Ghana's tech ecosystem forward. We were just talking about how much the government has bet on um, the enabling of AI in the country. Talking about funding, talking about startups, talking about companies in Ghana's tech ecosystem. Statistics shows that um, in 2024 um, in disclosed funding we had startups or um yes, startups in the tech ecosystem receive about 190. Am I right with that?

Guest: About 50 to.

Yareki Ofori: That's 2024. No, $120 million. That's 2024. Yes. So 2024, that's like a peak of 120 million the USD and um, disclosed funding. And then coming to 2025 we had them receiving about startups receiving about 56 million to 90, 90 million UM dollars in disclosed funding which shows a reduction. Now in this season we are going to unpack all this conversation because clearly we have more startups coming up. Various people are coming with various solutions. In Accra alone, um, statistics show we have about what thousand active startups. Is the growth impact? Is the growth just numbers? So you're actually experiencing impact. What does that impact looks like? Does the reduction in funding, is it going to cause um, startup founders and co founders to focus more or prioritize profitability, scalability, sustainability? Because um, um I believe from statistics shown that investors are not just funding anything or any solution that you come up with and um, they are looking at profitability and that's what all this season is going to be about. We are going to be talking about all of that and unpacking that conversation. So this season promises going to be insightful, going to be interesting. So you don't want to miss any episode, do all to subscribe, hit the notification bell so that you actually don't miss any episode. So coming to the theme for the season. Why Ghana Tech Rising?

Guest: Okay. Why Ghana Tech Rising? So I think um in the last couple of years we've seen uh a strengthening in our ecosystem basically. Um, we've seen professionals being developed I think through um programs like Ghana Exports in their talents basically remote work. People have developed international standard of working, they've developed international skills and some of these people are implementing it in you know our local industry basically. So we, we've developed our uh you know manpower basically our local skills where which we are leveraging on to the next phase basically. Um, our startup have also in the past we've gone through various stages where capital has come in um a lot. Um some startup have reused the capital, some have strengthened their position in the ecosystem and you know in Africa in general. Um yeah Ghana is you know one of the best place to start a business in Africa. Not the best. There's a lot we can improve upon um compared to like countries like Uganda and stuff. But I think we've, we've developed the uh skills, we've developed the ecosystem um to a certain point that we're leveraging it to the next um you know level. You could see it clearly in um, in um the government's position. We one of the forerunners of like um, um Project 54 and you know Fintech's um passporting with Rwanda. Basically we be taking it to the next level. Right. And I think why we want to do Ghana Tech rising is you know highlighting some of these innovation, the government, you know, um, AI strategy. I think we are the one of the few countries in Africa that have you know put you know concrete AI strategy in place. I think we're one of the forerunners basically. I don't know if any other country I know Kenya doesn't have Kenya. Uh, um yes and the pipeline, I

Yareki Ofori: know Kenya definitely they formalize AI policies but then I think Ghana is taking

Guest: them so I think we definitely rising in that direction and other direction as well. I think that's why we position this podcast um in a sense and in a place where we can highlight this um change um taking the top notch of the African tech ecosystem basically. We recently um launched the, the GPA act, UM Ghana Promotion UM Investment center has been touching to get UM Champion to champion the afta UM Intercontinental Trade. So it's we we've positioned ourselves in a very good place that after we Ghana is currently the UM Continental Secretariat for after um so we position ourselves as a very good place you know to kind of um see the next page. You're being the forerunner in Africa. There's a couple of things we need to do to catch up with countries like Rwanda. I think that's for me that's the model in certain aspect that Ghana needs to look at when it comes to Africa basically um in terms of you know ease of registering business and stuff. Um I think with the gapal um Ghana Investment Promotion Authority um the entry to getting into the market is lowered um significantly um Capital requirements has lowered significantly so it's, it's good um I think the regulating has m Also been strengthened in that aspect as well. So we've positioned ourselves as a country and we want to position ourselves as a platform building by to better capture the story and highlight it to you know, the rest of the world basically.

Yareki Ofori: I love that. Awesome.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah. Um for me I think um we like we stated we are aligned on like all on all levels uh be it talents, be it tech, be it um M talent tech opportunities, we are aligned on that level. I can argue that currently the Ghanaian young person gets equal opportunities like a young person in other places. But when it comes to like building a technology startup or working in tech because the skills are now available, I mean the grounds have been leveled and and with support of um government and other like key institutions in the industry including like NGOs we are, we are, we are getting those opportunities. I can even argue that to some extent even funding is also still being leveled because there's other access that pool and access and in the recent um conversations um at Lofty Inc. One of the Africa's um venture capitals um where we had their managing director Dris Bello and Micro Tractions co founder uh or uh P and P Investments co founder Ah Ko and I think Abdullah of Google Google Ghana Google Google Africa. They clearly mentioned that. I mean yes um funding slowed down in the, in the years like in the past year compared to like the previous year. But what is happening is that now people are, are trying to get efficiency out of it. Like the goal is now for you to be efficient not um just stand up with any yeah just stand up with any solution or build anything. Like now building has even been leveled so you need to Bring up more value to get the results you want, even including, even with regards to funding you need to get. Come, come, come up with something extra. And now what hap. What is going to happen is that a lot of, a lot of filtering is going to happen by natural uh, occurrence. Because if you're not serious about building, oh sure it will show. If you are not serious about the talent or the skill, it will show because right now everybody has that chance. And I think Ghana is also being positioned in the best place to make use of all this. So it's a, it's a good time for us to tell like this story. It's a good time for us to take note of it. It's a good time for us to allowing more partners, allowing more investors, allowing more cash flow, allow more talent, allow even more funds to flow in. Even if it means outsourcing talent. This is the time to do it. And I believe um, I'm looking forward to the 1 million coders or some of the initiatives the government is running to lead to some of these ends that after some of this, this initiatives, some of these people are going to get jobs, even if not in Ghana. Definitely. I mean starting from Ghana, go get jobs, be, I mean um, economically active then for those who'll be searching for opportunities outside of the country that was bringing inflows. So it's uh, it's one of the best times we're having as a country and we have to make use of it and, and drive the, the force behind it like to them to the maximum we can get. Especially for young people like. No. Make them lose out of this.

Guest: Yeah. I think on the touch of the young people there are quite a number of um, students or I mean people who are building stuff. And right now Ghana is being placed strategically to um, make these young people see the benefits of what they are building. Right.

Guest: True.

Guest: With, I mean the AI national strategy that was brought up, I think there was a part that made mention that they would outsource PE Ghanians who are outside to come and help build our local ecosystem. I think um, that is a step in the right direction and those are ah, stuff that would want to highlight in this new episode. Right.

Yareki Ofori: Not sure. I mean if you're a builder, you do not want to miss any episode in this new season. You already see how the conversation is going now. You mentioned about abandoned leveling up and we like the grounds have been leveled up for people. And from the conversation it's obvious that if you're a builder it's not too late for you because even this is like the best time for you to start building. And from 2024 to 2025 we've seen a reduction in um, disclosed funding. Is that, is that a box? Like that's what a ah disadvantage or it actually shows that our tech ecosystem is maturing because now they'll be forced to um, focus on the right things. What are your thoughts on that?

Guest: Um, so I think a little bit about the reduction in funding. I think investors are now trying to look at more quality um than you know, quantity. Um so I think the capital um and I think even the companies that are getting the you know bringing on the capital are even more confident in what they are building. So you can see a lot of their capital inflow is more of depth. Um um a significant amount of it is debt where they get to pay back. So they are much more. It's, it's. I think we are converging to uh a point of much more um quality than um you know, just quantity. So it's showing strength um in the ecosystem. Um you could see in you know um investment in companies like um affinity. Um it shows like investor confidence. They, they have confidence in the people building. So we're looking at you know, much more quality than just quantity where money goes to people that you know spread all across and some of them just you know vanish and the company don't, you know, continue. Also we see much more of you know development finance into areas like um, the green sector and the energy sector um which continues to rise um day by day. So I think it's, it's. It's. We would expect more capital but as you know Caleb said um earlier on um the. The ground is leveling. I need to show much more beyond just building. And if you were able to prove yourself, you know, I think you attract the capital naturally basically.

Yareki Ofori: So definitely it's a thing to add this advantage.

Guest: Yeah, it's advantage to strengthening of the ecosystem. We don't want a situation where a lot of capital is flowing in and you know.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah.

Guest: M. Investor confidence is going down because they're not getting the return that you're looking for.

Caleb Lampte: In fact um, at the UM event, I mean the Lotive Inc. Event M. We mentioned, I mean one of the things, um, all the investors there or the partners in Ghana they mentioned was that yes, um, we are doing well in building another but there still is a room for momentum that more builders should come out, more builders should be coming out. I mean if we are bringing out like Thousands. Now you should get to a point we should be bringing like 8,000 builders, like different builders. And with that momentum what happens is that liquidity finds its way in your, in the market. Money finds people in the market. As they are succeeding more people are getting opportunities to like succeed or tap in or work with that success gets shared. So there's, there is a need for momentum in the Ghanaian market. I mean I remember it is very clearly saying that uh, uh yeah, yes it's a cliche that we are known to be too comfortable compared to like other neighboring countries. But this is the time for us to put in more because we have the rights to some extend the fundamentals. We have the best of like we are a market that everybody wants to come in. We are market that we are close to good neighboring countries and they look to us so we can even like outsource some of our service our products to them. So it's something we should be looking at. And um, yeah there's a bright future along those lines.

Guest: Yeah and also on a touch on that I think um one of the stats we also have to look at is um when you look at the current financing it's mostly focused on infrastructure based startups. Right. So I think if we look much more into building startup that handle the infrastructure of a whole value chain that will attract much more investors because they do have confidence in that. So yeah those are some areas we should look up as builders in ecosystem them.

Yareki Ofori: I like I really love the input. So we are talking about a good number of active startups and we are going to be having conversations around that. We know um there are a lot of startups that are small, some don't even make it beyond the, the early stages and just a few receive uh funding of any form. What do you think is the problem and what can the audience expect around that in terms of conversation that we'll be having on the show?

Guest: Um so yeah um, I think we'll be highlighting um a lot of companies um I think mostly some um, mostly companies that are in a later stage. Companies, individuals. I think later on in this season we'll be talking to um people that are building um what do you call it, um investment um communities basically people are building um incubator or venture um um venture companies basically that highlights companies um train companies to be able to build sustainable um businesses individual to build sustainable business. So we'll be highlighting a number of companies also be giving um our audience you know information on how to you know tap into some of these um Venture. Venture. Venture programs to build successful business. Um, we have experts that will share their perspective on, you know, Ghana's um, and Ghana and Africa's um, venture ecosystem. Um, to help our audience know exactly, um, what, you know, how they should approach building companies. Basically we need more people in the ecosystem building. But also it has to be method, methodological. Basically you can just step out there and build it without any, you know, um, plan or strategy. I mean it's good to hit the markets and learn from it, but you need um, a framework that you know, helps you assess what you're building, the progress that you're making, um, you know, review the progress that you're making or what is going wrong and what's not going, um, right, basically as you build. But I think it has to be. There has to be a method and a plan to it. And we have guests that will share more light onto this and you know, how to basically build successful company. You have also companies that will come and share their strategy of, you know, what they built so far and you know, what strategies or method they use that have been successful for them. Um, yeah, we have people come share their experience in the early stages as well to tell about how it's going, how what's not going. Right. Basically.

Yareki Ofori: Yeah. There's so much to unpack in this new season. So as I said, if you're a builder or you plan to build or you're just a stakeholder in the tech ecosystem, these are conversations you can look forward to because I believe, uh, various episodes in the season will help you um, in focusing on the right things in your business and from the season guests will be having. It would inform your. Yeah. Pick lessons or the lessons you have to take so that you don't repeat them because these seasoned um, guests will be sharing their experience.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah. So, uh, yeah. On the Ghana Tech Rising, one of the things to realize with time is that a lot of infrastructure has been built or it's been built. I mean thankfully like receiving payments is now you have like a lot of options in receiving payments. Um, but in whatever currency, wherever country like that's possible to make sales, to buy things, um, to transfer, to acquire users, to hire and they're like that. There's becoming like a lot of, A lot of infrastructure being created around this like talent pipeline, whatever schools you want to get to know. There are career fairs happening like for that channel to be created. So we, I mean for us young people, like at this time, we are getting some of the best conditions the country has ever had to build or for builders or talents you are getting some of the best opportunities for people to, to build or uh, to grow themselves. And I believe like strongly how now in Ghana we have like Ghanaian owned 10 companies. I mean employing like 100700 people and more. There's more, there's going to be like more employment, there's going to be more of us. I even think of um even like now how I mean some of our um mobility apps whether Uber, Yango, whatever one are having like various kinds of services and if you are like an E commerce or online shop person like there's no need to worry about delivery now. Like there's a lot of plugins, there's a lot of like infrastructure available. So it's like a good time for us as a nation as builders to

Guest: consider just um open source its API.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah yeah.

Guest: Builders build with and, and there are

Caleb Lampte: number of, number of like open source um fulfillment companies or delivery companies. Like now around now everybody wants to create an API for developers. Like those times you probably have to chase a particular company to share their, their API for yours. They're going to benefit on, on that partnership or that, that those transactions are going to perform that service. But now it's public. It's, it's common to extent that like people have not even structured our whole um like road bus stops and junctions like digitize the whole system and they made all this API like available. So I mean Ghana stake rising is in is in the best time. It's in the best and I believe we're in a place that if we are able to create or build solutions for Ghana we can easily scale it to other countries. Like we can easily skill. I mean we are one of the people who can like really adjust the situations. So if you can build m solutions that we can adjust to it's likely when they get entering into other markets or other places they can adjust. Well not to, not to mention to even the adoption of AI in Ghana is, has been amazing. Like the adoption we've had um among students among older people now it's not surprising seeing like 60, 70 plus people generating like reports with AI. I mean what I mean recently um there's somebody another person around me and I realized she enjoys AI movies. I was like really? When did this become a thing? Like if, if not for her like I wouldn't have known that like there are like long hour movies on the end and like they just enjoy it and notice what they're interested in. How is it made, how is it created? The more they get to know. Like if literally a friend asks me, uh, what platforms can they use to create like AI videos for, I was like, really haven't got it there. And there's like a busy mom or somewhere, but there's that.

Guest: I've just been curious.

Caleb Lampte: The adoption is curious. They are curious. It's is there even among. When you also look at the climate space like now the startups coming up, especially in areas like a great energy and all that, they're all becoming like climate focused, climate friendly. I mean seeing the, the electric bikes on investor of Ghana campus, like people I found. What was the name again?

Guest: I'll then cycle.

Caleb Lampte: I wouldn't cycle. Like I found this so interesting then now like we don't have to wait for um, a taxi order. Right. Can just pick up a bike anywhere and like you're on the go. Can just put. And it's, it's affordable, it's energy efficient.

Guest: Like recently even brought up like um, an electric one to us also. Yeah, they're cycling. You have electric ones. One compost. Yeah.

Yareki Ofori: Wow.

Guest: So and that the CTO for that startup. Right. Is um, a student. Right. A finite computer science student and it's really amazing.

Caleb Lampte: Wow.

Guest: I think with this too, I mean if they give much more opportunities to um, people, young builders, they could do amazing stuff. Right? Because um, when they give him the opportunity to like handle a whole like um, recycling company, he's doing great with it.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah.

Guest: And yes, those are one of the stuff that we would want to highlight in this episode.

Guest: Right.

Yareki Ofori: And I think for Insight Lab or even for Building Bites is something that we are really positioned, positioning ourselves for, for the young builders beats and for Demo Fridays and all of that for them to come in, demonstrate what they are building and even get like. I personally always love Demo Fridays because the feedback are amazing. You get like real time feedback to go and update whatever you're building. And when Caleb was speaking he touched on like two things that I wanted to ask. That's one, um, businesses or startups scaling beyond Ghana and then the AI adoption as well. Um, do we think that with the foundation that we have in our country now is going to make it anywhere easier though I know scaling has to do with the other country more than the country you're scaling from. Would it make it easier for founders or for startups to scale beyond Ghana?

Guest: Yeah. So one interesting thing with the um, Ghana investment promotion, um Authority, the new access setup is they're set up not only to attract capital into the country but also to Support Ghanaian companies that want to expand to other African countries. Um to be able to do that under um after African free Trade, African continental free trade uh agreements basically. So I think we. We're doing very great um with such you know um, such regulations and you know support system in place.

Caleb Lampte: Um.

Guest: Yeah it would also um mean how ready the other ecosystem is or the opportunity in the ecosystem. But having such um mandates given to um Ghana Investment Promotion Authority it's better support our startups to be able to um. Um expand to other markets as well basically. And um. Yeah we already have companies that have been able to expand to a lot of other countries. We have in Sano.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah.

Guest: Um expand to like 14 African countries if I'm not mistaken. Um we have companies also expand to Cote d' Ivoire even um, we have um, farmer line in Cote d'. Ivoire. Ah.

Caleb Lampte: Uh, I mean we were getting the Canada license.

Guest: Yes we were recently got in the Canadian license as well. So we're doing great um in like a ton of other countries. So we actually very positioned um to you know move into other African markets as well. And I think Africa itself, you know um, we position ourselves to better integrate our economies um with after. With you know um. Um other payment infrastructure that's been put in place basically with stuff like fintech passports uh licensing. Fintech passports in basically license. Fintech license passports basically. So I think right now it's just. I think Ghana, Rwanda also Rwanda uh signing those licensing. But I would see more African country come on board. Um as we come on board you know ease of you know expanding into other countries would be much more easier. Right. You know expanding to other African countries um countries will be much more easier basically.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah.

Guest: M. Yeah.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah. So I think this um for this season, I mean with the rise you're experiencing it's a. It's a good place to share more on what we are building. So that's why I'm most excited about story blogs will be which will be launching soon. Like having startup founders yeah Tell their stories in like very few minutes or seconds and that's. That's a good thing because we need to tell the stories. We need more events. I believe like this year is a good, more visibility. It's a good year to do more Demo Fridays, like more hacking, more demos, like get um. Yeah more organization come together to support startups, to invest in startups no matter how smart it may be. The good thing is that with um AI and all the advancement the capital needed to support a business is not even that Much, I mean just significantly reduced. Like it's just that people staying alive and get, making sure they're comfortable or they can do something. So this is a good time for everyone to have their, their hands on like everyone, whether it's a corporate, whether it's an investor, whether it's, I mean treasury boats are down. Like you had a good place, you can, you can always get a lot of money to get like very good interest maybe. So um, if you're like, you work in a big institution or you work in investments or maybe say consider doing some startup investment no matter how small, like do some. But I know that the big, the big tax now is on execution. You just have to deliver. I mean if you're executing, I mean that's the only difference. Yes. Intelligence has been to some extent made cheap. To some extent. So now it's all about execution, resilience and all that. So I think it's, it's a good time for the market to build that capacity, that strength for people to show that resilience because I mean, to some extent we are in a good place as a nation now and it's that good place. We have to build the things we want to build.

Yareki Ofori: Yeah, yeah. And you spoke about AI adoption and honestly one seasoned person that came to mind, I don't know how many of us have encountered him. That's Mr. Marfo.

Caleb Lampte: Okay.

Yareki Ofori: He's a very grown man. I probably, um, I think he's close to 70. The man is an AI guru. Oh, well, I, I, hopefully we can have him on the show. It would be a great conversation about AI. And he'll always tell you that he did agriculture and he's, I feel like he's even more interested in AI than most of the youth and what he's using AI for. Um, amazing, amazing way, way ahead. And I believe it would be a great conversation to have. But then coming to AI adoption, do we think that um, startups or AI companies in Ghana are actually like building true AI companies or they're just like adding AI to the existing business? And is, is it even a problem whether they are building from scratch or they are adding it to their businesses?

Caleb Lampte: I think it shouldn't be a problem whether um, they're just adding it, they are putting it on it or anything. I mean when AI, um, this is where adopting started, we laughed at it like it was. No, I mean for some of us, maybe for some of us, for me, my, I don't know, sorry, but just myself and Poga, I mean when we Got to know about AI. There was no chat GPT. And it looked so magic, like magical to us. I remember like we wowed the guys who were working on AI. Yeah, I mean some of them are in Malta, uh, some in Germany and all that. Stupid companies. Yeah. Like we didn't know. In fact, uh, like people came from abroad, people from the western countries didn't believe like this was real. They were like, no, these guys is somebody at the back. Like something organizing something. Like it was funny then in less than a year, like ChatGPT is everywhere. And as the chat GPT comes now we enter into like a rapper. AI. Rapper. We said, hey, it's. It's just rapper. It's not, it's nothing special. They just put a around it and it's making sense. Until now realize that, okay, the rapper is actually a business as far as they're making money. So it doesn't matter what stage you are in the business, as far as you are inculcating like that, that technology to improve your service, to improve having your team to improve the products you build. That's. That's all that matters with that. I mean with time, you build up on it. The good thing is that you are on the same path. You're the same path as anyone in another country. You have the same tools, you have the same access. Like when, um, I mean sometimes some organizations another in like this, um, originating countries of AI startups or labs get to have earlier versions, but majority get what they release to the public. If it's chat GPT 4.4, 5.5. That's what everybody opens. 4.0, like that's what everybody gets. So like we do not have like any excuse do something with AI. Um, in whatever I do, like just, just do it. Just do it.

Yareki Ofori: M. Yeah,

Guest: yeah. Um, so I think the race for foundational AI, it's. It's looking like it's been decided by a few companies. Um, so foundationally, um, we had Deep Sea come up. You know, at a certain point in time they made a kind of a wave, but you know, they went down. They couldn't last in the race. So even, even if you look like all across Europe, you cannot find like a top company that's in Europe. That's, you know.

Caleb Lampte: Oh, I think Mistral is in Europe and Michelle is entering. Entering Africa currently. They are designed.

Guest: Well, that's. I mean, when we talk about what would make, you know, the top list, I mean, what venture capitalists you invest in, you know, um, a couple of companies. We're looking for just like a few of them to be like the top players.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah.

Guest: So um, even in Europe, you know we can only see any top companies there in AI. So but it's not really a problem in my opinion. There is um, a lot of value chain in there where you can build domain specific um, solutions tailors to like certain industries. So um, yeah we could tailor our solution to certain industry. And also a big part of AI is data. Right. The data that you use to train it in you know, certain domains. So we could train you know, our solutions with local data that could solve local specific problems. Right. That would be you know, um, would be um, of value to our context and to our areas. Yeah, yeah. So I think that's what we need to do if we solve problems that are really entrenched in our uh, local um area that you know, we have the domain specific knowledge from it and train the foundational model with it, resize it. Unfortunately, if you look like um, in general areas like let's say um, Kesa, um people building like developer tools like Kesa, there are also these AI companies that are building competitive um, products to compete with it because you know they have the foundational model already. They just have to build over it and uh, you know, competing with this other company, you know, Claude is um, anthropic, is now competing with Kesa, uh, with you know, Claude code. But I think if you saw very specific domain specific um, problems with you know, very you know, local context, we would, you know, we would find very um, we would find solutions that would work for us. Take to example, uh, we have a sky AI. I mean when you look at jurisdictions, um, local jurisdictions, like legal jurisdictions are very different. It's not harmonious all across, you know, all, all of us. So locally you could train you know a model that solved like that has the knowledge of the Ghanaian local due distance and you know, do legal stuff, you know, with legal knowledge that is very specific to Ghana that might be high, might be highly competitive if you have any like legal AI abroad, you know, when it comes to the Ghan context. So um, we don't need to you know, build foundational um models but you know, build domain specific um, application that solve you know, our local context problem.

Yareki Ofori: Dennis, you want to.

Guest: Yeah, I mean I was about to make a point about building the wrapper. Right. I don't really think it's much of a big issue. And it's mainly because about the funding. Right. Building those foundational models are quite expensive to do and we don't really have to build those stuff even though there are data concerns where our data is not those stuff. With what Bogart touched on we can actually build our own data sets and train their models on, fine tune those models on our data sets. So that's I think the way we should go around with this AI revolution.

Yareki Ofori: Okay, so in wrapping up, we're wrapping the conversation up, um, we are talking about Ghana Tech Horizon. So are we saying that the Ghana Tech rising we are actually seeing impacts and it's not just about the numbers, is that what we are saying?

Caleb Lampte: Yes. I mean the impacts um, is so obvious. I mean you see the work of I mean mental health AI. If you see um, like um, a number of like tech companies even using AI in the back office work, you see a number of it um, currently being, I mean companies like Affinity and other fintech companies, you see some of the products or features they are bringing out, you realize that they are AI doing like features that they're adding on. So and, and all these are like, are serving peculiar, peculiar challenges. They are serving really peculiar challenges. And all what most of these um businesses or enterprises are trying to do or founders are trying to do is to find like that leverage, that thing that works, that thing that people are now trusting, that thing that people can now work with. People are getting familiar. And I do, I know that's the, that's the thing on our end. For a market like Ghana, trust is one of the big things you want to cross. So if, when they, when they are able to cross that trust line like they are good, you know we, we have trusts for I mean all this like um, foundational model AI to companies like Open Aircloth that we pay so much for it even locally in respect of our exchange rate. So it clearly shows there's a market there, there's the opportunity there and people building there have something to work on. Now almost every um, institution that, that especially even um old institutions or legacy institutions that have data are trying to find ways where AI can make that data useful because they're getting to understand that what we, the data we have is very precious. It can change the course of our business in any time. You can get us on a bigger route. Just that we need the tools to do it. So it's becoming a lot of like interesting, interesting things. And I believe um, in a few years to come, maybe less than, maybe less than 10,5 um, that the adoption of AI in Ghana will be super amazing because even now a lot of children in private schools, I don't know about government but I know in private schools already using like AI for their assignments. I'm sure government children are also familiar because it's the same mobile phones like they are so ahead. So by age 10 or 11 this person knows how to run a computer to some extent just because of code or code or everything just because of this. I mean now that we've also leveled the ground. So yeah that's what I believe we are getting to and I'm excited for the next decade especially for Ghana where we are going to.

Yareki Ofori: Exciting, very exciting.

Guest: Yeah.

Yareki Ofori: So poker and Dennis, I'll take your thoughts and we wrap it up.

Guest: Yeah so I think one, one thing about startup ecosystem is a numbers game and basically as Caleb said we need you know from her submission earlier we need a lot of people to start building to attract capital into the ecosystem

Caleb Lampte: to see the impact as well.

Guest: Yeah and you know more people will fail, some people will succeed and you know through those failures we would, there will be valuable skills and lesson that could be used you know into DNS ventures. Um those that will succeed would you know become legacy companies that would probably fund the next wave of builders basically. So the numbers um is good you can see um a number of them are making the impact that we need. But also um to some extent VC startups M There's a high failure rate and when the numbers are high the percentage we get out of it is also high. So if you have a thousand 10% success is different from if you have a 10,000 or 100,000 basically. So um, the numbers um yeah there are a lot of startups that are making impact in the ecosystem basically building you know the tools, the infrastructure that we need for the ecosystem to succeed. Um you see in one of our future uh conversation you know uh, one of our guests talked about you know we almost virtually have the infrastructure that we, we need um especially in fintech already maybe in some areas like agritech we need more infrastructure um there but you know especially in fintech we almost have those you know the Rails that we need for um you know building already and we need, what we need to do is build on top of it, build innovative ideas on top of these rails, um, build ideas that takes you know the you know the fintech ecosystem to the new level. So yeah we're making the impact that we look we you making a um level of impact but I think yeah important to put in more so everybody should start building I think um, you know Ghana tech rise is not just only to highlight you know the People that are building but also the people that are starting now, you know that will take it to the next stage because you know there's always another level that we need to basically so.

Yareki Ofori: Yeah, yeah.

Guest: Awesome.

Yareki Ofori: Okay. Do you want to put in before we are? Okay.

Guest: So um, one thing I want to highlight as well. I think recently there was a launch of CI Guba. Fans of Fans. Um, I think it's, it's a great initiative. They pulled in around ah, 900 million Ghana cities um, from the pension fund and among um, other sectors as well. So basically it's, it's by Impact Investment and um, Impact Investment Ghana and Sahara um group, Sahara Impacts Ventures, they'll be managing it basically. So they source the funds basically um, to invest in funds that will be investing you know, startup as well. I think that is one great leap for you know, our ecosystem basically. Um, it's, it shows confidence um, in that you know we source in local capital that you know will stay in the ecosystem and not repatriate, you know when the profit comes. So it's, it's a very good milestone in our ecosystem. There's something that they have been working on for like almost you know since the inception of you know Sarah Impact Investments like about a decade ago. So it's, it's a good um, it's a good achievement you know to think of a fund or fund that is being funded by you know um, our local capital. I think in the future conversation that you see on this um, um series we have one of our guests talk about how foreign capital dictates what and how you build and you know, the importance of having local funds that you know, understand the ecosystem a little bit more instead of foreign capital that you know detects the problem that you solved as well and how you know and what you build. So having local funds, you know come into the ecosystem, it will give us maybe um, leeway to maybe build you know problems that you know it's has much more relevance to us. So I think thumbs up for today, Impact Investment Ghana Team and Sahara Impact Ventures for putting together these funds of funds to you know fund other fans to you know find startup as well. So I think um, that's also even much more sign that you know Ghana's tech ecosystem is on the rise.

Yareki Ofori: That's awesome. And we need more of such initiatives. So what's our uh, final words to our audience? What they can look forward to, what why they shouldn't miss any Build by Building bites episode, why they should subscribe to the channel and then Engage with us.

Caleb Lampte: Yeah. So, um, like we've always been doing and you continue doing, like telling um, Ghanaian African stories in the way you need to hear. It's not anyone telling our story, but telling what we are experiencing and what's happening on the ground and not just also tell us, share um, the experience of others. Have people on the podcast share those experiences to us. So it's going to be a learning session, it's going to be an informative session, it's going to be an insightful one. It's going to be another ah, a place of exposure for even startups that are coming up and we hope it will be a place for um, investment in this startups and talents you'll be bringing on board.

Yareki Ofori: Nice.

Guest: I think, um, my final words, we're in a time where you can easily build stuff, right. But the main issue is how you execute them. And we will bring people who have done it and they'll show us how they did it. Right. So we'll bring in more of these people who would come and show us how it's been done, like how they did it in their time. Yeah. Okay.

Guest: My final is just keep building and keep watching us. I think we, we give you um, juice or gist from the people that have built in our building, um, to guide your building but, you know, just keep building.

Yareki Ofori: Yeah. So there you have it guys. Keep building and keep watching us and yeah, we are going to see you in our next episode.