AI Development for Ghanaian Languages Led by Paul Azunre – Facing Challenges Along the Way
The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Africa, particularly in Ghana, is marked by both challenges and opportunities, with a focus on funding, linguistic diversity, and local expertise.
Challenges:
- Funding and Infrastructure Gaps: Ghana's National AI Strategy (2023–2033) requires adequate budgetary backing and annual investments of at least 10% in ICT infrastructure to expand broadband, reliable power, and data storage facilities, especially in rural areas. Fragmented data systems and connectivity gaps hinder the scaling of AI solutions across Africa, including Ghana.
- Linguistic and Cultural Diversity: Africa's vast linguistic diversity necessitates AI models localized to African languages and dialects to ensure accessibility and usability. Ghana is working on data harmonization laws to support culturally relevant AI model development.
- Developing Local Expertise: Building skilled local talent capable of developing and deploying AI is essential but remains challenging. Ghana's large-scale skills initiatives aim to bridge this gap, but they need continued expansion and support.
Opportunities:
- Strategic Government Initiatives and Legislation: Ghana's proactive approach includes frameworks like the Draft National Artificial Intelligence Strategy and legislative efforts such as the Ghana Innovation and Startup Bill Review and the Data Harmonisation Act, which create an enabling environment for AI innovations tailored to national and continental development goals.
- Continental Leadership and Collaboration: Ghana is positioning itself as a continental AI hub through initiatives like AiAfrica Labs, attracting regional partnerships and investment. Collaborations with other African leaders in AI provide learning and partnership opportunities.
- Harnessing Local Innovation for Inclusive Development: Ghana's commitment to inclusivity ensures AI benefits reach women, rural populations, and marginalized groups, aligning with broader socioeconomic goals. Opening anonymized government datasets for innovation and embedding AI in diverse ministries’ agendas fosters cross-sectorial AI-driven solutions tailored to Ghana’s unique needs and comparative advantages.
- Global Support and Investment: Significant investments from global technology firms help to build infrastructure and train African AI leaders, providing momentum and resources unavailable locally.
Dr. Paul Azunre, co-founder of Ghana NLP, is working on building natural language processing (NLP) systems for Ghanaian languages, confronting systemic inequities in the process. Despite the impact of Ghana NLP's work, local institutional support remains lacking. Dr. Azunre sees opportunities in building practical, commercial tools-apps that solve urgent local problems.
On January 31, 2025, Ghana's Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovation, Samuel Nartey George, made a promise to make Ghana the center and hub of Artificial Intelligence within four years. However, much of AI's advancement still fails to speak-literally-to the majority of African populations. Dr. Azunre urges African AI developers to think beyond the Silicon Valley hype and build more efficient, smaller offline models.
- Advancements in technology, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), hold the potential to address urgent local problems in Ghana, as exemplified by Dr. Paul Azunre's work in building natural language processing (NLP) systems for Ghanaian languages.
- To fully realize the potential of AI in Ghana and ensure its accessibility to the majority of the population, it is essential for the development of smaller, offline AI models that can operate efficiently without relying on extensive internet connectivity.
