Participating in Championing Ghanaian Innovation at the WSA Congress 2025

I finally got to visit India for the first time thanks to my involvement with the World Summit Awards (WSA). For many years, I have been recommending Ghanaian startups to be nominated for the WSA. For the 2024 cycle, I joined the online jury aside from my regular contributions in nominating Ghanaian built innovations. 3 of these ended up becoming global winners, which made me really proud. For the 2024 cycle, in an unprecedented showing, 3 of the 40 winners globally were from Ghana. They were the Achieve Investment App by Petra, Chango by IT Consortium and Khaya AI —by the Ghana NLP Project. The WSA National Expert for Ghana, Dorothy Gordon, suggested that we organize a bigger delegation to India for the WSA Global Congress (in Hyderabad, Telangana), supporting these winners. Led by Dorothy, we were able to get some sponsorships to cover our flights and accommodation. The Congress was from April 6-9, 2025.

I needed to get a visa to travel to India and the WSA team alongside Dorothy (who had 25 years of history in India), helped me with the process. I did not have to go and visit the Indian High Commission in Accra, I just filled a process online for my visa and had it sent to me. I spoke with an agent referred by Dorothy and booked my Ethiopian Airlines flights. Accra to Addis Ababa to Delhi via Ethiopian Airlines and then Air India to Hyderabad and back to Mumbai via the New Spirit of Africa to Addis Ababa and Accra. My fellow Ghanaians and others who were traveling for the Congress had their own stories of traveling to India, but once April 6 arrived, we were mostly ready in Hyderabad, rearing to go.

I was a man on a mission. As the Director of the GhanaThink Foundation, my goal was to be an active part of our Ghana delegation at the World Summit Awards (WSA) Global Congress, celebrating the "More Vim" spirit of Ghanaian innovation competing favorably on the world stage, selling our abilities, capabilities, potential and collaborations to fine folks from all over the world. Out of 40 winners, Australia had 4 winners for this cycle, followed by our dear nation with 3. That’s a big deal! 3 out of 40 from Ghana! #MoreVimNews indeed!

Team #WSAGhana

Other Ghanaians who traveled included: Dorothy Gordon (former MD of AITI-KACE), Kafui Anson-Yevu, (a former GhanaThink executive who leads Kraado), Kwesi Hayford (ESports Ghana), Huzaifa Abdulai & Daniel Anaman of Achieve by Petra, Joojo Esua-Mensah, Yussif Markstar, Hosny Ben Savage and Matilda Amuzu of Chango by IT Consortium, as well as Lawrence Adu-Gyamfi & Stephen Moore of Khaya AI by Ghana NLP. We had a meeting at Petra’s offices to familiarize ourselves and plan our India trip. We planned on how to make the most of the Congress, in tow with the wisdom that Dorothy shared. In Hyderabad, we repped hard, with our Ghana flags, etc. We had our dedicated WhatsApp & Telegram groups to communicate, coordinate, celebrate, should I c c c c continue?

The first session I joined was the opening ceremony of the Congress which had happened at the WE Hub, Amphitheater (Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University). Dorothy Gordon was part of the Fireside Chat: From Telangana to the World: A Dialogue on the Digital Futures. She shared how India had climbed from 100th to 39th on the innovation ladder, and discussed the work of the Center for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC). Her wisdom reminded me that while we celebrate our wins, we must also address the digital divide to ensure that meaningful internet access isn't just for the elite. She was also on panels discussing data governance, equity by design, etc.

The Congress
The World Summit Awards (WSA) annually honour tech that are competitive globally that demonstrate impact, creativity, as well as sustainability aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Awards started in 2003 with the first Congress that same year in Geneva, Switzerland. The 2025 WSA Global Congress happens over a number of days with presentation and panel sessions, workshops, pitches, an awards gala, etc. It also included visits to T-Works and some tourism related agenda items. There were winners from all over the world, including various National Experts and others involved in the World Summit Awards. The way the Congress was organized brought some lessons for how to organize Barcamps and other events in Ghana.

The Congress was hosted at T-Hub, which we learnt was the biggest incubator or tech hub space in the world. Yes indeed! The world’s largest innovation campus by space was launched in June 2022. It is approximately 582,689 square feet (5.8 lakh sq. ft.). It is a unique T-shaped 10-storey vertical grid inspired by Hyderabad's iconic Charminar. It can house 2,000 startups simultaneously. Whether I was in the "Pinnacle" or "Oasis" rooms, the air felt thick with the electricity of innovation, entrepreneurship, best practices, and impact. Being there gave me the opportunity to network with various people at the T-Hub as well.

The Global Wins

The highlight of the congress for me was undoubtedly the WSA Gala, where 3 of the 40 global winners were from Ghana. It was a historic moment for Ghanaian tech & the the #GhToTheWorld movement. 1 of these was the Achieve Investment App: For making wealth creation a reality for everyone. I have been using this app for years, to do savings and investments. This app is built by Petra (a long-time partner for Barcamps in Ghana), which is led by fellow MIT Ghanaian alums. I have known Paul Azunre and Stephen Moore for years and it was great to see Khaya AI recognized. It uses AI to translate our precious African languages. I naturally got to know about Chango through fellow GhanaThink member Seyram Ahiabor who works for IT Consortium. Their app is revolutionizing how our people contribute and manage group funds. None of these won the awards for their categories. However, the Global Champion for the healthcare-related category was from Zambia. Duniya Healthcare is led by Mwansa Chalo. They are transforming pharmaceutical supply chains in Africa by acting as a tech-enabled marketplace that links health facilities and retail pharmacies to suppliers.

As the awards were announced, the DJ played Rema’s "Calm Down," but our team made sure the world heard us too. I remember feeling a surge of pride as Adina’s "On My Way (To The Top)" played—a fitting anthem for a night where Ghana truly arrived.

My Global Network

Naturally, I networked a lot, spending a lot of time building bridges. I spent a lot of time updating myself on the ecosystems in Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi thanks to some of the WSA Youth Ambassadors like Kuruthumu Kasenya (Tanzania), Joseph Jawah Kebbie (Sierra Leone), Donald Rukanga (Uganda), etc.

I networked with some of the Youth Ambassadors like Karen Alejandra Flores Barrientos (Peru) and Amal Saji (India). It was great learning more from Arturo Lopez Valerio (Dominican Republic), Emeka Farrier & Gia Gaspard-Taylor (Trinidad & Tobago), Gloria Mangi (Tanzania but based in Saudi Arabia), Ieva Zilioniene (Lithuania), Leonardo Medeiros (Brazil),  Mathias Haas (Vienna) who is a fellow Global Shaper Alumni like me.

One of my favorite encounters was with Ramiru Wijayasiriwardhane, a 15-year-old Sri Lankan prodigy. His project, RAIN, won in the Young Innovators category at the World Summit Awards (WSA) 2024. We talked about MIT and other top academic institutions like Stanford. Interestingly, my Sri Lankan friends from my time studying in the US were at Yale, Wellesley instead. I connected her with one of my favorite Global Shaper alums, famous Stephanie Sirawardhana. 

Many a time, we network and take contacts and do not make the most of those. Since April 2025, I have pursued a few things and there is a lot more to come. We all need to do better with this, even if we are separated by timezones, demographics, expensive flights, and regular grinds. You can tell what I returned home with. I just hope we can leverage a lot of the learnings, etc for strategic visions that can be implemented innovatively ASAP with available funds and resources. We didn’t just go to India to participate; we went to lead.