#cititrends

Alloysius Attah, Co-founder of Farmerline and one of the most honest talking tech leaders you will find in Ghana.  He shares his story of building one of the most recognisable AgriTech brands in Africa and the key lessons he has picked up along the way.  He also speaks on policy, pivoting and returning to basics within the agritech space.  Enjoy.

Nigeria in the last couple of days: - Federal Government bans Twitter. - Federal Government issues an order asking all media outlets to suspend the use of their Twitter handles. - Federal Government set to prosecute ALL Nigerians found tweeting. - Nigeria estimated to be losing over $10M in e-commerce revenue. On the show this week, we try to understand the why, who, what and when of this decision by the Nigerian government.  My guests are:  Abubakar Idris - Africa Reporter at Rest of World Maximus Ametorgoh - Digital Lead at Popout Kingsley Abrokwah - Chief Enabler at Kudigo Joseph-Albert Kuuire - UX Designer at Jetstream Africa/Editor at Tech Nova GH

A woman who achieves.  That is what i have known the founder of Soronko Solutions to be. She has a compelling story about how she got into tech and what has kept her in it.  On the show, she shares these stories and her lessons she has picked up on the way as she charts an incredible path for women in Tech globally.  She speaks on the power of partnerships, focus and understanding the market for your tech products.  Enjoy. 

A truly dynamic individual with a big focus on using technology to develop others around him and project Ghana to the world.  Director of the GhanaThink Foundation and a young man who has dabbled in everything from music, to Google to advocacy to training to everything else in between.  Press Play and enjoy the conversation. 

He describes himself as an entrepreneurial leader with rich experience building products, teams and international partnerships to deliver innovative technology solutions. He says about himself, "I enjoy tackling complex problems of scale that involve learning and deep analysis towards strategic and significant impact." Kofi Dadzie shares suggest of wisdom about building tech businesses, handling transitions, leadership in a tech environment, handling government agencies and more in this new series on Citi Trends. Enjoy 

What a show we have this week.  Twitter has established its HQ for Africa in Ghana and the country is buzzing. We establish the details of the move and provide some clarity on the show with Foster Akugri, founder of Hacklab. We continue our series on Tech Pandemic Stories by looking at how education is evolving in Ghana and what needs to be done to propel the sector to the next level using technology.  Enjoy the show. 

Eno Quagraine, Founder of Talkative Mom, has built her solution from a blog three years ago with readers all over the world into Ghana's First Mom App and motherhood-specific search engine. With a passion for women’s health, she built her audience through her candid, sincere storytelling on motherhood-related issues that wasn’t addressed at the time. It has a host of features including a marketplace with almost 130 businesses and thousands of products, a blog with contributions from certified professionals and experts and lists of essential service providers to help parents and care-givers.   She shares her experiences of building a tech solution on the show.  Enjoy.

In this new series on the show, we speak to technology entrepreneurs about how they are surviving and have managed to overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.  This week, i speak to two female solution providers; one into automotive and the other into fintech.  We talk about growing your business and finding ways to survive during a pandemic. Enjoy. 

Online music streaming has become the most preferred way for accessing music and audio content today. With several players in the game, Spotify appears to be a market leader of sorts, contentious as it may be. In a recent online event, the company announced an expansion to over 80 new locations around the world, across Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and Latin America in its broadest expansion yet. These include Papua New Guinea, Palau, Samoa, Zambia, Cameroon, Ghana, Haiti, Jamaica, Bahamas and more. I spoke to Phiona Okumu, Head of Music (Sub Saharan Africa) at Spotify to shed more light on the developments. Enjoy the show. 

Content, they say, is KING.  The question though, remains, who is serving the king? How are they surviving? How are they surviving? How are they producing quality content within a space that is in its nascent stages.  Kwadwo Sheldon and Rick Aqua, share their insight on the show this week.  Enjoy.

The global digital report put together by We Are Social and Hootsuite yearly, presented some rather interesting details about the state of the digital world we live in today.  For example, 5.22 billion people are reported to use a mobile phone today, equating to 66.6 percent of the world’s total population. There are now 4.20 billion social media users around the world with the typical user now spending 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media each day. Filipinos are still the world’s biggest consumers of social media, spending an average of 4 hours and 15 minutes per day using social platforms The issue however is, what do these numbers actually mean?  Stephen Boadi and Nadia Owusu share some insight into all of this on the show.

To everyone who has a bank account, who spends money, who gives money; who does anything related to financial transactions, this is a show for you.  With global trends suggesting a huge interest and funding in the financial technology space, it was only a matter of time for investors and entrepreneurs to find ways of disrupting the financial sector.  One of such concepts gaining traction across the continent is Open Banking.  Paul Damalie, CEO of Appruve, joined me to share some insight and how crucial it was to roping more people into the financial space.  Enjoy the show. 

Happy New Year and what a way to kick things off on #CitiTrends.  The platforms that allows us to stay in touch with loved ones and family and friends come under scrutiny. Whatsapp, global leader of the pack, issues a statement about data it will be making available to Facebook (its parent company) and the world goes into meltdown. People want to delete the app, other want to switch, others just do not understand what is going on.  On the show this week we answer the security concerns of the announcement and what users should bear in mind when using the messaging platforms.  We also gain insight on how the announcement will impact the the lives of individuals, businesses and the tech space generally. 

Closing the curtains on the show this year, we spoke to Eric Osei-Annor on television resolutions in Ghana and why the TV industry needed a player to provide an HD television output service. Enjoy the show and Merry Christmas. 

Ghana's electoral was uploaded onto a Google Drive account. The link was shared. Everyone had access to it. Lots of people uploaded. The Election Commission says it has withdrawn it and will publish another one with added security features. How big a deal is that? Mike Perry Attara, Software Engineer with Walulel; Carl Sackey, President ISACA Ghana; Patricia Adusei-Poku, Executive Director Data Protection Commission and Kofi Owusu Nhyira, Private legal practitioner, join me to discuss it. 

Ghana's cybersecurity bill has been reviewed by Parliament. The President needs to sign it. But what does the bill mean for the Ghanaian? Private legal practitioners, Jessie Abugre and Yinsongti Tindana break the bill down on the show. Derek Laryea who is the Head, Research & Communications at the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications also shares some insight into how the bill affects the financial tech and telecommunication space. 

Getting affordable and accessible internet to the remotest parts of Africa will also be a headache. What is most encouraging is the desire for Africans to develop home grown solutions for the. continent. My guests to share their insight on the show this week were: - Andy Halsall, CEO of Poa Internet, an ISP bridging the digital divide by providing affordable Internet to rural and low-income communities in Kenya.  - Henri Nyakarundi is a native Rwandan is a well-respected voice on entrepreneurship in Africa, renewable energy, innovation & technology impact and more. 

Double dose of goodness on #CitiTrends this week. We look at how the legal fraternity in Ghana has been trying to catch up with the myriad of technological disruptions happening globally with legal profession with Kwaku Boadu, an IT lawyer.  We then try to break down what influencer marketing is all about with Therese Jones of Ripple Influence.  Loved every bit of it. Time for you to do same. 

The final debate of the year!  What a debate it turned out to be.  Kudos to Elikplim Sabblah, Project Coordinator at Mobile Web Ghana, who argued for Twitter emerged victorious.  Duncan Kwame Gablah, a Member of GhanaThink Foundation, argued for Facebook.  Enjoy the debate. 

We did a number of things on the show this week. 1. We found out the topic for the next edition of #ForOrAgainst 2. We found out about the law covering the digital payments and services sector 3. We spoke about the Apple event.. We had fun basically. Enjoy.