Ghana is making progress in AI adoption, but a lack of structured AI education limits homegrown talent. Elikplim Sabblah stresses the need for institutionalized AI training to drive meaningful economic impact

 March 26, 2025

Yes, Ghana is gradually adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI), and several institutions are making efforts to train students in AI-related fields. This is a positive step, but the challenge remains; AI education is not yet widespread, and most of the AI experts in the country are not homegrown. 

Instead, many have been trained abroad, which, in one way or another, limits the contextual relevance of AI solutions developed for the country.

“There are just one or two undergraduate AI courses in Ghana and no master’s or PhD programs,” said a Technical Advisor at GIZ Ghana working on the FAIR Forward – AI for All project, Elikplim Sabblah. “That means anyone with an advanced degree in AI or data science in Ghana has likely studied abroad,” Mr. Sabblah told The High Street Journal in an interview. 

This lack of structured AI education makes it difficult to develop a steady pipeline of skilled AI professionals who can drive innovation locally. While some institutions, like Academic City University, have incorporated AI components into their curriculum, these efforts are still in the early stages. Meanwhile, universities like Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) are working on launching postgraduate AI programs, but Ghana is far from having a well-established AI education system.

“If you don’t study in your own country and in your own context, you will be trained to solve foreign problems,” Sabblah explained. “We need AI education in Ghana that equips students to solve local challenges and drive meaningful AI adoption in the economy.”

Another major challenge is that many aspiring AI professionals in Ghana struggle with access to relevant learning resources, including datasets, computing infrastructure, and structured mentorship. This further limits the ability of local innovators to build AI models that address real-world problems in agriculture, health, finance, and other sectors.

Despite these challenges, Ghana has individuals and small groups making remarkable progress in AI, but their work is often constrained by limited training opportunities and institutional support. Sabblah noted that while innovation is happening, the ecosystem lacks a system that consistently produces AI engineers and data scientists at scale. 

“We don’t have a system that is consistently producing AI engineers and data scientists at the scale needed for national development,” he said.

To help bridge this gap, FAIR Forward has supported several AI training initiatives in Ghana. For three years, they partnered with an institution in Accra to run an AI fellowship program, providing graduates with three months of intensive training followed by three-month internships. 

“For the third year, we ran the programme specifically for women, and we had our highest level of interest from female participants,” Sabblah revealed.

However, while these programmes help, he insists that Ghana needs long-term, institutionalized AI education. “We need institutionalized capacity building. AI education must be structured at all levels, from undergraduate to PhD programs, to develop AI expertise locally,” he stressed.

Sabblah believes that events like the Ghana AI Summit play an essential role in addressing these gaps by bringing together policymakers, researchers, and industry leaders to discuss AI education, policy, and innovation. “If you don’t attend such events, you might have tunnel vision, thinking only a few people are working on AI,” he observed. “The summit will bring together stakeholders to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing.”

With the right investment in AI education, Ghana can develop a strong AI ecosystem with local experts leading innovations that solve Ghana’s challenges.