Science & Technology

Ghana was the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to launch a cellular mobile network in 1992. It was also one of the first countries in Africa to be connected to the internet and to introduce ADSL broadband services.

Ghana Telecom (GT) was privatised in 1996. On 3 July 2008, the company was sold to Vodafone for $900 million. After the transaction closed, Vodafone had a 70% stake in the company, while the Ghanaian government retained a 30% stake.

On 16 April 2009, the company was rebranded as Vodafone Ghana.

Since then, the mobile market in Ghana has grown rapidly, with six competing operators, including MTN, Vodafone, Millicom (Tigo) and Zain (Airtel). Mobile penetration in Ghana is currently above 100%, way above the African average. But this does not mean every Ghanaian owns a mobile phone - it is due to the practice of 'multi-simming' whereby people own more than one SIM card.

In January 2013 Ghana was ranked as the country with the highest mobile broadband penetration in Africa, according to an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) report. According to the Measuring Information Society Report released in the last quarter of 2012, mobile broadband penetration surged from 7% in 2010 to 23% in 2011.

Science & Technology - Heroes

Dr Ashietey Trebi – Ollennu is a distinguished Ghanaian engineer and research scholar. He gained B.Eng. in Avionics at the Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Queen Mary College, University of London in 1991. Ph.D. in Control Systems Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Royal Military College Science, Cranfield University, U.K,  in 1996. He is a member of several renowned organisations such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), UK etc. He has received several awards including a NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal in 2008 for his exceptional technical contributions to the Mars Exploration Rovers and for providing comprehensive engineering support to pre- and post-launch, including resolutions of rover anomalies.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

#RiSE3 Kumasi

Robotics Inspired Science Education 2013 – Tamale

Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation

Francis Kofi Ampenyin Allotey (born 1932) is a Ghanaian physicist and mathematician. He is known for the "Allotey Formalism" which arose from his work on soft X-ray spectroscopy. A founding fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, in 1974 he became the first Ghanaian full professor of mathematics and head of the Department of Mathematics at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

The Professor Francis Allotey Graduate School was established in 2009 at the Accra Institute of Technology

Professor Edward S. Ayensu is a Ghanaian economist, scientist and former chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, (CSIR) Ghana.

Ayensu studied the biological sciences at the University of London and was formerly Director and Senior Scientist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He is a noted international development advisor on science, technology and economic development, a Member of the Board of Trustees of the UN University for Peace and a Member of the Advisory Board of the Sustainable Forestry Management Limited (SFM). Ayensu has held several important positions globally, such as Chairman of the Inspection Panel of the World Bank and Secretary-General of the International Union of Biological Sciences and he is the founding Chairman of the African Biosciences Network. In 1997 he authored a book named Ashanti Gold.

Dr. Ave Kludze was born in Hohoe, in the Volta Region of Ghana. He arrived in the United States in the late 1980s with only a High School diploma from the Adisadel College in Cape Coast, Ghana. Shortly after his arrival in the United States, he enrolled at Rutgers University where he set out to pursue a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.

Nat Quansah is a botanist from Ghana, and a doctorate in philosophy. He was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2000, for his works on health care, cultural tradition and forest conservation, based in Ambodisakoana, Madagascar.