Speech by Executive Chairman, AIDEC Digital at The Launch Of AIDEC AI Centre Of Excellence

THE AI ECOSYSTEM IN GHANA AND AFRICA

We are living in a world that is rapidly advancing in technology, and Artificial Intelligence is playing a significant role in shaping our future affecting every aspect of our lives, from healthcare to finance to entertainment. AI is helping us solve some of the world’s most complex problems from automation to providing new, data-driven insights that inform decision-making and drive growth. The power of AI today lies in its ability to process vast amounts of data and make predictions with accuracy that are unprecedented. AI algorithms can analyze patterns in data to identify trends, make predictions, and automate tasks that were once performed by humans. This has revolutionized the way we approach complex problems today. AI today is used in healthcare to diagnose diseases, develop new treatments, and improve patient care. AI-powered medical imaging tools can detect cancer at an early stage, when it is more treatable, and machine

learning algorithms are being used to analyze clinical trial data to develop new treatments more quickly and efficiently. AI is also making a significant impact in the financial sector, where it is used to detect fraud, analyze market trends, and make investment decisions. AI algorithms are helping banks and financial institutions to make better-informed decisions to ensure the stability and growth of global economies. AI is used in the retail industry to improve customer and user experiences, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. AI-powered chatbots are helping retailers to interact with customers in real-time, and machine learning algorithms are being used to analyze customer data to improve product recommendations and personalize the shopping experience.

There are a number of organizations including AIDEC Digital working to promote the development and responsible use of AI including.

a) AI Hub Ghana; focused on building capacity in AI and data science through training, workshops, and other initiatives.

b) Google AI Center in Accra: a research center established by Google in collaboration with universities and institutions across Africa, focused on advancing AI research and development in Ghana and the wider African continent.

c) CTO Ghana AI Community: a community of AI practitioners and enthusiasts in Ghana, working to promote the development and responsible use of AI in the country.

At the Continental level, there are several partnerships and consortia working to promote the development of AI across Africa, including.

a) AI for Africa: a pan-African organization working to build a strong AI ecosystem on the continent, from research and development to entrepreneurship and investment.

b) Data Science Africa: an organization focused on building capacity in data science and AI across Africa through workshops, training, and other initiatives.

c) Partnership on AI: a global consortium of companies, academics, and non-profit organization working to ensure that AI technologies are developed and used in ways that benefit humanity.

d) AI & Beyond: an initiative launched by the African Development Bank, focused on promoting the development and responsible use of AI across Africa.

These organizations, initiatives, and partnerships of various dimensions and scope including Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) and SMART Africa, all share the common goal of advancing AI in Ghana and across Africa. We in AIDEC Digital are very excited about this and have since 2020 contributed in very significant ways as a private sector entity to the AI development trajectory in Ghana and Africa.

AIDEC DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

AIDEC Consultancies International Ltd with its trading name, AIDEC Digital is a 100% owned Ghanaian company and has for the past 18 years, (since 2004) provided quality and excellent consulting services to several organizations including language translation and simultaneous

interpretation of international conferences. AIDEC Digital with its Consortium Partners here present are currently at the forefront and championing IT/Digital technologies with a pool of experts ready to work with the public, private and third sectors to facilitate and enhance public service and accelerate the growth of businesses in the private sector that would in turn create safe and secure jobs for the teaming unemployed youth. The overall goal of the Consortium Partners is to harness IT/Digital solutions and services to help transform Ghana and African economies, promote Africa’s integration, economic growth, job creation, contribute to eradicating poverty and promote socio-economic development of our countries.

In furtherance of this noble objective, AIDEC Digital have since 2020 launched the AIDEC Digital Centre of Excellence and engaged in several activities geared towards the realization of these objective through the organization of several educational workshops and fora including a reward system for top performing, innovative and creative IT Companies, Universities, and Individuals, i.e.

a) Africa Digital Forum (2021) at the Best Western Premier hotel, Accra

b) Tech Engineers Roundtable (2021) here in this conference room

c) Africa Technovate Awards/Fair (2022) at the auditorium of UPSA, Accra

d) AI Centre of Excellence (2023) here within this building.

Today is yet another milestone. Together with our Consortium Partners; the Institute of ICT Professionals, Ghana (IIPGH), Academic City University College, 7W Artificial Intelligence Company Ltd of Slovenia, we are here to commission a state-of-the-art AI Centre of Excellence with a co-location at Academic City University College, Accra.

We will also in the course of this program launch four products we have developed that are geared towards IT/Digital education and training namely, a) Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform; www.africoursity.org b) A Schools Management System (SMS); www.aidecia.com c) QuikNote; www.quiknoteonline.com made up of students’ created content consisting of academic notes, research materials and papers across various Universities in Ghana and beyond and d) Tech News Global; www.technewsglobal.com for Technology, Information and Education of the general public.

AIDEC Digital and Consortium Partners have as our vision to be a leading AI Centre of Excellence providing IT/Digital solutions in solving complex industrial, academic, business, and social problems and more specifically in the health, education, governmental as well as social services.

Africa’s development lies heavily on the effective use of IT/Digital tools. AIDEC Digital and Consortium Partners are poised to expand our services as drivers of IT/Digital innovations in collaboration with other organizations and institutions with similar objectives in Ghana and across Africa such as SMART Africa as a contribution to Agenda 2063 of the Africa Unions’ Digital Development Strategy (2020-2030) and transformation for an integrated, sustainable and

inclusive development of the African continent. This approach we believe will improve on efficiencies and effectiveness and free resources for development.

is common knowledge how technology can play a significant role in poverty reduction, wealth creation and prosperity for economies globally. Ghana and African countries have no option but to fully embrace technology and create a niche for our Countries in products and services development both for our own use and the export market. We need to develop our economies characterized by modern educational systems in which ICT is widely deployed to facilitate the delivery of educational services at all levels.

The new tech innovation ecosystem has taken us to a new level where we do not only transform the production processes and services delivery but also systems and services delivery models for Governments through Big data, Data analytics, AI technologies, Machine learning, Deep learning, Predictive Analytics including Cloud computing and Advanced Robotics in the area of Mechanical Engineering. We are looking at creating African economies where the delivery of services by Government and its administrative machinery are largely facilitated by information and communication technologies starting from the organs of Government i.e., a) A Smart Cabinet, b) A Smart Parliament, c) A Smart Judiciary. We would like to see an African economy characterized by a technology-based driven industrial sector, an economy based on a rich pool of highly skilled human resource who will have a competitive edge in the global space, an economy with a modern and competitive agricultural sector. There are appropriate tools to bring this about such as Digital Twin and State Leadership Artificial Intelligence Managerial Tools (SLAIMT).

In Ghana and other parts of Africa, there is good news in our digital development trajectory, i.e., we have seen a transformation of our ICT sector in terms of connectivity, a rise in internet penetration, a rise in e-commerce, e-governance systems development, and usage, and also ICT advocacy in terms of education and awareness creation. As Consortium Partners, we would like to see the mapping out by our governments, broad policy and implementation strategies, Policies for digital innovation and entrepreneurship, the harmonization of policies, legislations and regulations and standardization to strengthen intra-African trade and socio-economic integration of the continent of Africa. The issue of cyber security and personal data protection for transactions as well as consumer protection will require the establishment of local standards to help create an enabling environment for a productive digital trade and digital payment systems.

CONSORTIUM PARTNERSHIP AND AI CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

The AIDEC AI Centre of Excellence by Consortium Partners with a co-location at Academic City University College will provide both in-person and virtual training, educational programs and Consulting services to Organizations, Institutions in the private, public and third sectors, giving practical knowledge in areas of AI and its application for Agriculture, Health, Education, Fintech, Mechanical Engineering etc. The Consortium Partnership is a private sector initiative to

compliment government’s digitalization agenda and that of the African Union (AU) and its agenda for digital transformation under the 4th Industrial revolution. 7 W Artificial Intelligence Company Ltd are experts in a) Digital Twin and b) State Leadership Artificial Intelligence Managerial Tools (SLAIMT) and are available to provide the Consortium Partners with technical backstopping.

How Digital Twin can be employed:

a) Manufacturing: Digital twins can be used to optimize production processes, reduce downtime, and improve product quality.

b) Healthcare: Digital twins can be used to simulate patient outcomes and improve treatment planning, as well as to optimize hospital operations.

c) Energy: Digital twins can be used to optimize energy production and distribution, as well as to improve maintenance processes for energy infrastructure.

d) Transportation: Digital twins can be used to optimize the performance of vehicles, as well as to plan and manage transportation networks.

e) Construction: Digital twins can be used to improve project planning and construction processes, as well as to reduce waste and increase safety.

f) Retail: Digital twins can be used to optimize supply chain operations, as well as to improve customer and user experiences and increase sales.

g) Government: Digital twins can be used to improve city planning and management, as well as to optimize the delivery of public services.

AIDEC AI CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE; SERVICES AND PRODUCTS:

What AIDEC AI Centre of Excellence offers:

Services:

a) Technical training and education on AI and its practical application to solving problems.

b) Technical skills development: provide hands-on training in the latest AI technologies and tools, helping to build a new generation of skilled AI practitioners. This can include programming languages, machine learning algorithms, data visualization etc

c) Entrepreneurial Support: support the development of AI-powered startups, providing a supportive environment for entrepreneurs to test and refine their ideas, and access to resources such as mentorship, funding etc.

d) Interdisciplinary Learning: AI is a complex field that requires knowledge and skills from a wide range of disciplines, including computer science, mathematics, and the social sciences. AIDEC AI Centre of Excellence will help provide interdisciplinary learning opportunities that bring together young people and women from different fields, helping to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and creativity.

e) Access to Global Network: Connecting young people and women in Africa with AI practitioners and researchers from around the world, the Centre will help in creating a supportive global network for learning, collaboration, and career advancement.

Our services range include but not limited to.

a) Artificial and Business Intelligence

b) Robotics and Data Analytics c) eLearning Platform; www.africoursity.org, www.quiknoteonline.com

d) eCommerce Platform

e) State-of-the-art Tech Lab (AI Centre of Excellence)

f) Information Technology Training Services

g) Web and Mobile Apps Development h) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERPs); www.aidecia.com

i) Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Services

j) Data Centre (Cloud Migration and Cloud Support Services)

k) Cybersecurity Solutions l) IT Education and Advocacy; www.technewsglobal.com, www.africatechnovateawards.tech

Products

a) aidecia; the complete schools manager.

b) africoursity; the learn engine, for short certificate courses.

c) quiknote; the learning hub, for students created e-learning materials.

d) technewsglobal; for your technology, Information & Educational news.

AIDECIA; the complete Schools Management System.

a) Library Management

b) Hostel Management

c) Inventory Management

d) Human Resource Management

e) Transport & Logistics Management

f) Payroll Management

6. CONCLUSION

The Consortium Partners will continue to identify and establish a Network of Professionals in Ghana, Africa and the Diaspora and work to improve and expand their Institutional capacities in Digital skills education in Artificial Intelligence and related fields such as.

· AI to aid decision making based on Data Analytics

· AI for Agriculture

· AI for Mechanical Engineering

· AI for surveillance to help stamp out illegal mining, “Galamsey”

· AI for surveillance on anti-terrorism

· AI for property identification, classification, and revenue mobilization in terms of Property taxes

· AI and its application for Medtech, Fintech etc

AIDEC Digital is committed to contributing towards an all-inclusive digital transformation for Ghana and Africa as a foundation for the establishment of the Africa UNESCO Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Ghana. To fully realize this potential, policies on AI would need to be developed.

AIDEC Digital Centre of Excellence started small and have procured CTVET and Data Protection Commission Certifications and today, have transformed to be AIDEC AI Centre of Excellence collaborating and working with our Consortium Partners to contribute in a meaningful way to the development of the IT/Digital ecosystem in Ghana and Africa. We can only be thankful to God Almighty for how far He has brought us. I thank you all for the rapt attention and on this note I declare the AIDEC AI Centre of Excellence duly commissioned in the name of the Father and of the some and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. We will later move downstairs to do the cutting, blessing and inspection of the AIDEC AI Centre of Excellence.