From left: Stephen Blewett, Samuel Nartey George and Ibrahim Misto
MTN Ghana has launched the second edition of its flagship innovation festival, MTN DigiFest 2026, alongside a three-day Tech Fair, as part of efforts to promote innovation, digital skills and collaboration across the country’s technology ecosystem.
The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Stephen Blewett, said Ghana had the talent, ideas and growing technology ecosystem needed to become a major producer of digital solutions for Africa and the global market.
He said the rapid pace of technological change was creating significant opportunities for countries and businesses prepared to embrace innovation, but stressed the need to focus on solutions that addressed genuine customer needs.
“We have highly educated people who have amazing ideas. We need to bring those ideas to the market, not just in Ghana, but to Africa and the world. It is not just one person or one company that can do that,” he said.
Mr. Blewett said MTN Ghana’s digital business was growing at approximately 98 percent year-on-year, making it the third-largest digital business within the MTN Group.
He challenged the company’s digital team to build on the growth and work towards making MTN Ghana the leading digital business within the Group.
MTN Ghana’s Chief Digital Officer, Ibrahim Misto, said DigiFest was an important component of the company’s digital transformation strategy and its efforts to encourage innovation beyond conventional technology roles.
Reflecting on MTN Ghana’s technological journey, Mr. Misto said the country’s technology landscape had changed significantly, with artificial intelligence, fintech, cloud computing, data and digital productivity tools becoming increasingly integrated into everyday life.
According to him, DigiFest provided participants with opportunities to acquire practical skills, explore emerging technologies and collaborate with partners, customers, employees and communities.
He said MTN Ghana would showcase solutions across areas including gaming, streaming, television, applications, home solutions, cloud technology and enterprise services.
The Chief Commercial Operations Officer of MobileMoney Limited, Abdul Razak Ali, said digital innovation would have little value if it did not address real financial challenges.
Mr. Ali said MoMo had contributed significantly to financial inclusion by enabling customers to transfer and store money digitally, but noted that the next phase of digital financial services should provide easier access to savings, lending, investment and insurance.
“We have deepened financial inclusion, we have a lot of people using MoMo, but a lot of people are still using just the basic stuff,” he said.
He said technologies such as artificial intelligence and application programming interfaces would be critical to expanding access to financial services, improving customer experience and strengthening fraud prevention.
BY Prince Fiifi Yorke