The 2017 edition of Africa ICT Expo 2017 came off on Monday October 16 at the Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel in Accra.

The opening ceremony of the 2-day event which ended on October 17 saw hundreds of young and vibrant entrepreneurs and exhibitors in the technological field participate.

The technology forum that brought together creative minds raised varied concerns about the adoption of technology in Africa and the European world, pointing out the relapsing performance of startups in Ghana despite the proliferation of technological innovations and digital transformations.

Without doubt that Ghana is a developing country in Africa’s continent, language difference among indigenes in the West African state has been rectified by experts as a key factor troubling Information Technology companies.

Speaking at the 3rd edition of the Africa ICT Expo 2017, Mr. Carl Sackey, Product Development Manager for GCNet indicated that a common language that cuts across a particular geographic settlement contributes to a rapid adoption in technology based programmes.

Clarifying his grounds, Mr. Sackey posited that the fragmented user base in Ghana contributes largely to the country’s deficiency to technology growth. He noted that, a common language among East African countries facilitates their rapid growth of startups whereas Pidgin in Nigeria also makes it easier for developers to meet users within a short period of time.

“If you look at East Africa they have a common language they all speak, Swahili and that’s what led to the rapid rise of M-Pesa because it was easy for everybody to use the language. More than 90% of East Africa inhabitants can actually read a write the Swahili language.”

“If you come to Ghana, we have a very fragmented target or user base. In this context you notice that the adoption of technology here will be much slower than in East Africa,” he said.

He urged that we need to come up with an innovative way to make information accessible to everyone despite the over 40 varied language we possess as a country. Mr. Sackey proposed that the use of animations could bridge the gap to technology adoption but quickly added that it then would have to be complimented by smart devices.

“We can come up with innovative ways like using animations but that means your users would have to use smart phones than USSD devices to be able to interact with the graphical interface and perform a lot of transactions. That probably will be a quick way of bridging the gap,” he indicated.

The program dubbed “Digital Possibilities – Think, build, sell” brought together a number of speakers from different segments of the country including mobile operators, regulators, consumer brands as well as industries and organizations with direct or indirect link to the mobile technology sector.

There were also varied innovative devices created and developed by young Ghanaian entrepreneurs on display.