Ghana’s Cabinet has approved a $250 million investment to construct a national artificial intelligence (AI) compute centre, in what Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, described as a decisive moment in the country’s push to lead responsible AI development across Africa.
George made the announcement on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, at the National Stakeholder Engagement on Ghana’s AI Readiness Assessment Methodology (AI-RAM) Report, held at the Best Western Premier Hotel in Accra. The event was co-organised with UNESCO and funded by the European Union, and drew representatives from government ministries spanning health, education, justice, and agriculture, alongside researchers, technology startups, private sector companies, and civil society organisations.
The centre is expected to support AI research, development, and deployment across key sectors including agriculture, healthcare, education, and financial services, and forms part of President John Dramani Mahama’s broader vision to drive Ghana’s digital economy forward.
At the same event, the Minister confirmed that Ghana’s National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy has also received Cabinet approval and will be officially launched by President Mahama on April 24, 2026.
George acknowledged that Ghana is not building from zero. He cited mobile penetration exceeding 110 percent, with over 38 million mobile subscriptions nationwide, as a foundation already in place for scaling AI applications. He nonetheless pointed to persistent gaps that must be urgently addressed, including data governance, digital skills development, and research capacity.
The Minister stressed that the compute centre is designed to reduce Ghana’s dependence on foreign technology infrastructure, giving local researchers, developers, and startups the tools to build solutions on home soil. He warned, however, that infrastructure alone is insufficient without the right values guiding deployment. “AI must advance inclusion instead of advancing inequality,” he cautioned.
Connecting Ghana’s AI ambitions to continental trade, George linked the initiative to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), headquartered in Accra, arguing that AI will be central to driving digital trade and inclusive growth across the region. He set an ambitious benchmark for the country’s technology sector: scaling solutions from reaching 20,000 people locally to 20 million across the continent.
The $250 million compute centre has already attracted international interest. Ghana secured a partnership with Chinese technology company Huawei Technologies, which expressed specific interest in the project alongside the country’s rural telephony expansion and 5G rollout.
George called on academia, industry, startups, and development partners to contribute concrete ideas to shape the country’s AI implementation plans, making clear that government alone cannot deliver the transformation being envisioned. “The decisions we make today will shape Ghana’s technological future for decades,” he said.
