#cititrends by Philip Ashon

Two amazing conversation for the price of one!

What an enthralling episode this week's show is! Speaking with Paul Ninson about Tech, visual education and business. Three ingredients for creatives ANYHWERE.

FACTS are always sacred. Data helps to deduce facts.

To pivot or not to pivot... That is the question.

Valentine's Day edition of the show and we just couldn't help but dive into the global digital report put together by We Are Social and Meltwater. Lots of insights from Alice Mensah who is the Marketing Manager at Fido. 

Content creation is big business today. It is changing lives and spawning new revenue streams folks didn't even know existed. It is a very open field now but question always remains, how do you cit through the noise? My guests, Two Video Content Creators who have really pushed the bounds of content creation in the past year share their hacks and frank opinions about what works and what does not based on their experiences. 

It feels good to return for another year of Citi Trends and this year i decided to kick things off with one of the most hard working in the tech space in Ghana today. He is the founder of TechNovaGH and a well of wisdom. Hope his lessons and thoughts inspire you and keep you pushing in the new year. 

Platform Economies have often been touted to be the saviours of the new world of work. Offering flexibility, ease of payment and so much more. 

Sat with two of Ghana's pioneers of the podcasting space, Donald Aryee and Cyril Afeku, cofounders of @thegoldcoastreport to talk openly about podcasting in Ghana. 

Three guests from diverse backgrounds joined me to discuss value chains and how paying attention to them could propel your business to the next level. 

E-sports is a multi-million dollar industry globally. Over 300 million stream content around E-sports. But, why is it such a big deal? Why should Ghanaians pay attention to it. 

Automation of processes is so commonplace in our daily life that often, we tend to ignore it. 

Online platforms play an increasingly important role in today’s digital economy. One example of the growing relevance of the platform economy are online labour markets. These two-sided platform marketplaces allow buyers and sellers of online mediated work to connect around the globe and transact tasks in various occupations, such as graphic design, translation work, or software development.

In the first of this series, we speak to founder of eCampus, a web and mobile based online teaching and learning (EdTech) platform, Cecil Nutakor as he opens shop in Dakar, Senegal. 

The global creator economy is said to be worth over $100 billion, and Africans are mostly shut out of it. 

Joe is such an unassuming guy. However, he knows his stuff and that is what we enjoyed when he joined the show this week. 

Elon Musk buy Twitter and the world will not be the same. 

Thinkers and innovators like Saron Paz are always a delight to hold conversations with about the meaning of tech and what the future of it all looks like. 

What happens when jobs are available but the people are not skilled enough to take them?

The Citi FM/Citi TV Heritage Caravan gives all patrons a unique insight into the tourism potential, or otherwise of Ghana. Patrons get to travel across the country to experience different parts of it in a road trip-type of experience. 

International Women's Month on Citi Trends and what a topic to kick off with! 

Building any team is tough. Building a strong team as a tech startup, however, is on a whole new level. 

It is no secret that the world get excited when conversations about new mobile devices are made. 

Digital is leading the marketing space. That is really all you need to know. 

In 2021, the Government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization, gave a directive that all Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards should be reregistered over a six-month period spanning October 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022 using the Ghana Card.

The Electronic Transaction Levy is a raging issue in Ghana. Opinions are divided on the matter.

After Zuckerberg unveiled Meta, we got a sense into what his vision was for the company. 

Every couple of months, a new phone is released. 

This episode was all about breaking it down to the barest basics. 

Everyone has their own idea of what it means to scale. At the base of it, it is often about growth. Kweku of MESTAfrica shares his unique perspective on the topic and why it might be important for startups and businesses to reconsider their understanding of the concept. 

A packed week deserved nothing less than a packed show. The team from Ghana Meteorological Agency talk to us about their new app which could help dozens and save countless lives. Eric Asuman who is the Deputy Director General at Ghana Meteorological Agency and Maureen Abla Ahiataku who is a meteorologist joined me for the conversation. 

Building a tech business is not for the faint hearted and my guest on the show this week, knows a thing or two about that. 

One of the most passionate humans you will meet anywhere who also happens to be the main holding high the flag of Ghana in the world and gaming, GLOBALLY. 

Straight talking and frank. That is Cecil. 

We continue our series of conversations with Ghana's leading tech talent and innovators and this week, Curtis Vanderpuije (CEO of expresspay) joins us. 

Alloysius Attah, Co-founder of Farmerline and one of the most honest talking tech leaders you will find in Ghana. 

Nigeria in the last couple of days:

A woman who achieves. 

A truly dynamic individual with a big focus on using technology to develop others around him and project Ghana to the world. 

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."

What a show we have this week. 

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.  

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. 

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.

Content, they say, is KING. 

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. 

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. 

Happy New Year and what a way to kick things off on #CitiTrends. 

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?

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:

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. 

The final debate of the year! 

We did a number of things on the show this week.

Four personalities involved in the Arts and Craft space in Ghana meet in one studio to talk about their sector and how it connects with tech. Tonyi Senayah (Horseman Shoes), Nana Asaase (Asaase Inscriptions), Mabel Simpson (Mspimps) and Alma Tawia (Prestige Kente) share great insight on this week's episode.  

We always hear about technology hubs springing up in all parts of the country offering one service or the other. However, what really are they?

In sub-Saharan Africa, Artificial Intelligence remains an emerging technological innovation. The technology has, however, been a significant factor in creating more social inequalities and widening the inclusion gaps. Kofi Yeboah, A graduate student at the University of Alberta conducted some research looking into the phenomenon and shared some insight on this on the show.

The first edition of For Or Against, a new feature on the show where we debate One Topic from the tech industry was the highlight of the episode this week. The debate topic was intriguing enough. The debaters were fantastic; Nehemiah Attigah (CEO of Hatua Tech) and Mary Abiogun (Product lead at Colibri Africa). We also kicked off a new series with the 8Geeks at Law where we find the intersections between the law and tech. Enjoy the podcast. 

A topic that is often left undiscussed but critical for business growth, no matter the sector; failure. My guests for this week helped to get some closure on the matter; Amma Gyampo (@amdecoafrica) Paul Ziem (@paulziem), Nana Prempeh Agyeman (@kingnanaprempeh) and Lorraine Wright (@lorrainehwright).

The payment systems and services act, 2019 was put in place to amend and consolidate the laws relating to payment systems, payment services and to regulate institutions which carry on payment service and electronic money business and to provide for related matters.

The US senate met the CEOs of Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Google to quiz them about  online platforms and market power, their dominance, competition problems in the digital economy and the roles of the companies in stifling competition in the tech space. There were invaluable lessons to be learnt from the sessions and this week's episode sought to unearth some of these.

There comes a time when as an industry observer you need to take a step back and do some reality checking of what is actually going on. Two of the hottest segments of the technology space in Ghana today are church management applications and video gaming. My guests for the discussion were:

Education continues to change globally but Africa is in a unique position. How does Africa position itself for the future it wants for its educational systems. Anne Salim, education technology specialist, shares some insight on the matter. Miracule Gavor who is an Education Adviser at Transforming Teacher Education and Learning, also shares his perspective on the matter from a Ghana point of view. 

With guests from across the continent and another from across the Atlantic, this week's show focused on understanding what the future of the gaming industry in Africa looked like. What will it take to make it all a reality? 

Education has changed significantly in the period of the COVID pandemic and the rise of digital education has been incredible. My guests on the show this week explore just how much of all the buzz translates into quality education. Märt Aro, Ecosystem Orchestrator at Dream Apply; Anne Salim, Product Associate at Longhorn Publishers and Lauri Jarvilehto, Professor of Practice at Aalto University; provide some incredible insight. 

Every quarter the ladies take over the show to review the top technology trends from the past quarter. This quarter we had Nana Efua Benyaw (@NanaEBP) who is the project manager at Dnar Limited,  Audrey Mengue (@AudreyHMMengue who is a data scientist in training at Azubi Africa and Charis Kumordzie (@coomogee) who is a JavaScript tutor at Codewit. Insightful!

Education, Entrepreneurship, Entertainment. Three pillars used by the Nordic countries to chart a path to growth and development.

My guest. on the show this week - Eric Osiakwan, Managing Partner of Chanzo Capital, Entrepreneur and Investor with 15 years of ICT industry leadership across Africa and the world - joined the show to share insight into what an African economy needs to be doing to digitise in these times of a pandemic. What critical blocks need to be laid to ensure a viable digital economy is sustained and grown. 

Its always an amazing experience to share thoughts with some of the best in the tech space in Ghana and this week's show was no exception.

What a time to be alive!

What a time to be alive! One virus changing lives, perceptions and lifestyles all over the world. Education has been hit as well in a place like Ghana and a lot of schools and parents are exploring online options. My guest, Magaret Dawson-Amoah speaks about the impact of COVID-19 on education and shares some platforms to help you on the 'virtual' educational ladder. 

The outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020. Over 400k cases recorded as at the time of the recording of the show. COVID 19 is sweeping across the world like wildfire. Regardless of the pandemic, health care professionals continue to fight. Technology entrepreneurs have also joined in.

On the show this week we hear from Miishe Addy and Solomon Torgbor of Jetstream as they talk about the impact of Covid-19 on trade, trade in the West African subregion, API’s and collaborations between tech players in the ecosystem to enable payments, commerce and movement of logistics.

Mark Kaigwa, founder of Nendo, author, and Entrepreneur focused on data, strategy and marketing in digital Africa.

CEO of Popout, Maximus Ametorgoh and Digital Marketing Consultant, Stephen Naasei Boadi broke down the details behind the facts about Ghana's the digital landscape. The team gave some candid advise to companies to help them remain connected to their clients, and audiences in the next decade.

Alfred Opare Saforo was my guest this week. He is the Creative Director at Teamalfy.com & a freelance work evangelist. He also founded freelancebootcamp.org. He explained for everyone what a Gigi economy entailed and how much support it could actually give to the real economy. 

My guest this week, Joseph-Albert Kuuire (Editor of Tech Nova GH), talks to us about user experience (UX), what is it means, why it is important to pay close attention to it in product development and some of the things you should be aware of. Joseph speaks about putting yourself in the place of the user, focusing on solving errors and always testing with actual people before you release your product. Enjoy the show. 

Speaking about cybersecurity in Ghana and on the continent is one of the only ways to create the needed sensitisation required to get the population care about it. Khallai Taylor, whose area of expertise is with secure APIs and data protection joined me on the show this week to look at exactly that. 

Conversation around innovation don't get any better than this one with Haim Gilad, an Israeli expert with 35 years of experience in innovation from governmental and private sector. He speaks from the heart about some of the lessons on innovation such as the need to create a culture that allows for failure and learning from it. 

A new year, a new episode, the same amazing show. Ernest Nii Adjah Akrong  & Bernard Archibold Baidoo, both Associate Software Engineering Analysts at Rancard, focus on the power of Artificial Intelligence and its transformative power on global technology development. The guests also share insights and products from the Consumer Electronics Show. 

In the final episode of the show for the year, Clement Osei Tutu of Axe Technologies, Yao Banku of Pennysmart and Maximus Ametorgoh of PopOut joined me to talk about their businesses.

Another good week, another set of brilliant technology entrepreneurs from Ghana.

Nehemiah Attigah of Code Factory, Curtis Vanderpuije of expressPay  and Shika Nornoo of ShikaKope.com shared a platform as we spoke to more brilliant Ghanaian technology entrepreneurs.

There is so much happening on the tech scene in Ghana and we often forget to celebrate our little victories. For this reason, #CitiTrends tries to do exactly that every November on Ghana radio. A chance to hear about the revolutionary work being done and an opportunity to pick lessons and new learnings.

This episode features some of my favourite discussions of the year; some wise words from Jemila Abdulai of Circumspecte and Kofi Dadzie of Rancard. We also speak to YahClick and Teledata ICT about providing affordable satellite internet access to homes and businesses across the country.

It is very easy for parents today to feel 'left behind' on the technology 'usage race' (unless you are a developer or enthusiast). You soon realise her well versed your children are in the technology tools around the house and you have not figured out 40% of it. Reena Efua Ametorwo and Roslyn Naadu Laryea, both from SeekApor Ghana joined me to share thoughts on this issue and more. 

They often say that when music hits you, you feel no pain. Today, it appears you don't even feel the pain in your pocket as well. Streaming platforms have revolutionised the music industry tremendously. Sadiq Abdulai Abu of 3Media Networks shares some insight on what the picture looks like for African and Ghanaian artistes.

According to the 2018 Global Cybersecurity Index, the average cost of data breaches in the world was up by 6.4% in 2018 costing global businesses a whopping USD 2 trillion by the end of 2019. Mr. Philemon Hini who is the Head of Technical Operations at e-crime bureau and a Digital Forensic Professional shared some insight on its implications for businesses. 

Everyone needs money to get their business from idea to product. The tricky thing is often where to get 'safe' funding which will not cause an implosion but will rather spur the business forward. Samuel Oriaku and Kelvin Tyron, both of Invoicia, joined me on the show to share some thoughts about this very issue and some solutions available today. 

Four incredible female techprenuers on one insightful radio show. Patience Teiko Tetteh (@jbosschic1), Software engineer; Cyhana Williams (@CyhanaLena), GIS Technician; Tracy Ayebea Obeng (@traybengs), Flight Operations at Zipline Ghana and Alice Kuukua Mensah (@kuukua_mensah), a certified Google partner and digital marketer.

Andrew Takyi-Appiah, Managing Director of Zeepay holds the opinion that borderless payments should be a reality before the close of 2019. He speaks about the potential of borderless payments on the continent through OTT. 

Photography has a rich history but its future is never certain. The technology available today is changing the way people interact with with photographs and event take them. Michael Dakwa and Timothy Adei from Team1000words were my guests in the studio for this conversation about Photography in the 22nd century. Enjoy.