How Three Tech Innovations Are Putting the Nation on the Global Map at World Summit Awards 2024
Ghana has achieved a significant milestone with three solutions among the World Summit Awards’ 40 global winners for 2024. This notable accomplishment positions the country among leaders in digital innovation, demonstrating how Ghanaian entrepreneurs are leveraging technology to address local challenges while creating sustainable business models that align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The World Summit Awards evaluate projects from 182 countries through a rigorous selection process involving National Experts, an Online Jury, and a Grand Jury. It has previously recognized Ghanaian solutions like Leti Arts, Bloom Impact, Farmerline, and Naa Sika. However, 2024 marks an exceptional year, with Ghana claiming three spots among the final 40 winners from 29 countries.
Transforming Finance for Everyday Ghanaians – Achieve Investment App
Achieve Investment App represents the democratization of investment opportunities in Ghana’s growing economy. While traditional investment avenues often cater to the wealthy or financially sophisticated, Achieve has created an accessible platform that speaks to the everyday Ghanaian seeking financial growth.
Backed by Petra, the app has transformed the saving and investment habits of over 74,000 active users through its intuitive interface and goal-driven mutual funds. Achieve has opened doors to financial empowerment for many middle-class Ghanaians previously excluded from investment opportunities, allowing users to plan for education expenses, home purchases, and retirement with greater confidence.
Community Support in the Digital Age – Chango App
Chango embodies the essence of “people helping people” that runs deep in African communal values. As Africa’s leading group contribution and crowdfunding platform, it has digitized the traditional “susu” collective saving system that has operated informally across Africa for generations.
By integrating Mobile Money, Chango makes its services accessible even to unbanked individuals, while features like real-time tracking and private groups enhance trust and accountability. Chango modernizes traditional saving practices, empowering individuals and communities to manage finances more efficiently and securely.
What makes Chango particularly innovative is its private group feature, which enables extended families, alumni associations, religious groups, and professional networks to support each other financially. This digital solution preserves cultural practices of community solidarity while adding transparency, security, and efficiency—proving that technology can enhance rather than replace traditional values.
Breaking Language Barriers – Khaya AI.
Perhaps the most transformative of Ghana’s winning innovations is Khaya AI, developed by Ghana NLP. In a continent with over 2,000 languages, many are considered “low-resource” technologically, and Khaya AI is working to ensure no one is left behind in the digital revolution due to language barriers.
The translation app supports communication across multiple African languages, making business negotiations, educational content, and government services accessible to more citizens. Its text-to-speech functionality and API integration capabilities impact critical sectors like healthcare, where clear communication can be lifesaving, and agriculture, where technical knowledge transfer is essential for improved yields.
Beyond practical utility, Khaya AI serves a deeper cultural purpose by revitalizing indigenous languages at risk of fading in an increasingly English-dominated digital landscape. For many users, the ability to engage with technology in their mother tongue represents not just convenience but dignity and cultural preservation.
Ghana’s Rising Tech Ecosystem
These three innovations represent a broader trend in Ghana’s evolving tech ecosystem. The country that launched the first mobile money implementation in West Africa continues to demonstrate how African-developed solutions can address uniquely African challenges while creating viable businesses.
“These awards highlight Ghana’s growing reputation as a hub for technological innovation with social impact,” says tech analyst Ama Nyarko. “What’s particularly impressive is how these solutions bridge tradition and technology, addressing real community needs rather than simply importing foreign concepts.“
The success of these Ghanaian startups also illustrates the importance of cultural context in technological development. Rather than applying Western models directly, each has interpreted global technological trends through a Ghanaian lens, resulting in solutions that resonate deeply with local users.
Global Recognition, Local Impact
As Ghana celebrates this international recognition, the objective measure of these innovations will be their continued impact on communities. From the market woman who can now invest small sums toward her children’s education through the Achieve Investment App, to the farming cooperative pooling resources via the Chango App, to the elderly citizen accessing health information in her native language through Khaya AI technology is transforming everyday lives.
These winning innovations demonstrate that the path to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals will be paved not just by global initiatives but by locally developed, culturally relevant solutions that meet people where they are. Ghana’s three WSA winners of 2024 give compelling evidence that Africa isn’t just participating in the digital revolution in many ways, it’s leading it.
