GTIW: Organizers launch Tech festival; unveil 27 categories

The week-long Ghana Technology and Innovation Week (GTIW) was launched in Accra on Friday, April 22.

The festival targeted at recognizing, acknowledging, and promoting excellence in mainstream technology solutions and innovation space was outdoored in the presence of key players, stakeholders, corporate entities, and the media.

The main event is scheduled for June 23rd to 25th.

The keenly contested 27-list categories will recognize Tech leaders, Tech enthusiasts, Tech influencers, Tech professionals, Tech entrepreneurs, Tech Institutions, Innovators, and Corporate organizations.

The Executive Director of the Center for Human Security and Peace, Adib Saani who doubles as the Chairman of the Board of Jury believes the event will improve productivity amongst the youth in the face of massive unemployment while it solves a myriad of problems affecting the country.

“Tech gives us endless opportunities to aspiring to greater heights. This event is meant to encourage tech, promote conversations, not just reward but solve loads of socio-economic issues we’ve had to contend with as a country,” Mr. Saani said.

“We need to make our youth population productive, especially in the wake of massive unemployment with a lot of young people leaving school and not having anything to do,” he added.

He also hailed the vice president’s efforts to digitalize the economy by introducing a system whose foundations are tech-driven.

“The vice president's effort to digitalize the economy has been progressive. I mean, we have seen recently at an event in the Central Region that the Vice President launched an E-travel card,” he said.

He continued: “This means that before a government functionary travels out of the country, all information will be loaded onto the card. It ensures accountability so people won’t travel and not account for the money they have spent.

“For years, we have also seen a lot of reforms in the public sector, especially with the introduction of the Ghana Integrated Financial Information Management System (GIFIMS) which is an IT-based accounting system that tracks all government expenditure even at the very decentralized level.

"This promotes accountability, promotes democracy, and ensures people don’t engage in acts that are inimical to the state. As far as I am concerned, it’s been good but there is still a lot to be done moving forward,” he concluded.

Below is the list of unveiled categories:

1. Digital Entertainer of the year
2. Digital Entertainment platform of the year
3. Digital Media Company of the year
4. Tech CXO of the year
5. Health Care Platform of the year
6. Most Innovative Research Lab Company of the year
7. Tech and Innovation Lab/Hub of the year
8. Consumer Technology Retail Company of the year
9. Digital Product of the year
10. Automobile Company of the year
11. Logistics Tech Company of the year
12. Tech Deployment of the year - Extraction sector
13. Tech Deployment of the year - Manufacturing sector
14. IOT Deploying of the year
15. Educational Technology Company of the year
16. Energy Solutions Innovator of the year
17. Water Processing Company of the year
18. Green Tech Company of the year
19. Telecommunications Company of the year
20. E-commerce Platform of the year
21. Woman of Excellence in Tech
22.AI Innovation of the year
23. Tech Security Company of the year
24. Smart Banking Tech Solution of the year
25. Business Process Automation System of the year
26. Tech Champion of the year
27. Hall of Fame awards