On Wednesday 20th November, this year, BloggingGhana will bring together different players in the Ghana e-commerce space to deliberate, discuss, debate and strategize. A few things makes this engagement attractive to the stakeholders and main players. First of all, as part of this discussion, BloggingGhana will put together a road map document which will be forwarded to the Ministry of Trade and Innovation, to b considered when the Ministry finally drafts its white paper on the issue later this year. Secondly this has become a discussion people are interested in because it has a direct link to the problems faced by a good number of Internet users in the country. Users are often frustrated when a service or product they want to access only take paypal as a payment option. Lastly, Google Ghana providing some support to this movement goes a long way to increase the interest of the many people who have expressed interested in pushing this agenda. The discussion will mainly take place on Google Hangout on Wednesday from 1-3pm. At the same time the discussions will be extended on twitter to engage the thousands of other Internet users who would want their voices to be heard. The hashtag which will be used on Twitter is #Paypal4Ghana. The road map document has already been created on Google Doc. BloggingGhana through this engagement seeks to populate this document with the inputs and outcomes from the discussion. Participants will be given commenting rights to add their voices to the action items which will be drafted during the event. Obviously, with this, we are moving several steps away from hosting just “talk shops”. Invitations have been sent to developers, bloggers, consumers, online shop owners, e-commerce experts, e-payment owners, mobile money managers etc to be a part of the @Paypal4Ghana dialogue. The need for this discussion arose when Samuel Darko vigorously started pushing for Paypal to list Ghana on its platform. This action has pushed many other discussion in different fora. One thing is clear though, Internet users need some form of payment which will grants its users the convenience paypal offers. You can sign up for the Hangout here. Hope to see you on Wednesday for what promising to be a deal-breaking discussion. If you won’t be available for the Hangout, there is an option to sign up for the twitter version here.
Blog Archives
Leti Arts: Ananse Press Release
Ananse Superhero Comic on Leti Center
Leti Arts releases pilot issue of Ananse superhero comic through Leti Center mobile app.
Accra, Ghana – October 18, 2013: Leti Arts, an interactive media studio with offices in Ghana and Kenya, announced today the release of Ananse: The Origin, the pilot issue of the comic for their superhero series, The True Ananse.
The True Ananse, is a Leti Arts digital comic and mobile game series influenced by the African folklore character from Ghana, Kweku Ananse, a character of trickery and cunning.
Leti Arts reimagines the story of Ananse with a unique twist depicting Ananse as a superhero in modern times. The pilot issue released today is the first issue within the story arc, Ananse: The Origin, which focuses on the origin story behind some important characters in the The True Ananse series.
“ Long ago, Ananse, the god of Wisdom is banished onto earth as a cursed statue of his totem, the spider, by Odumankoma, Ruler of the Skies for treason. Fast-forward to today, the cursed statue of Ananse is discovered and worshipped until fate brings Ananse and an innocent boy, Selasi Rockson together, his vessel for reawakening. ”
The True Ananse is part of the bigger Leti Arts’ Africa’s Legends series. Africa’s Legends reimagines popular African folklore and historic legends, interspersed with fictional characters, as an elite group of superheroes fighting crime in present day Africa. Comics and games based on the Africa’s Legends series tell the stories behind individual characters and the collective team.
Leti Arts distributes their digital comics and mobile games through a mobile app, Leti Center, to serve content to smartphones and advanced feature phones.
The Leti Center also provides consumers a unique and enhanced experience for reading digital comics from Leti Arts. The app will be updated with new comics and games via push notifications when a new issue or version of their favorite games or comics are available.
“ The goal of merging the past with the present in a format that is exciting and compelling is to encourage younger generations to be genuinely excited to learn and read about African history and culture. We believe making history and culture in education relevant through interactive content is a better long-term bet for preserving our heritage.
We aim to make the Leti Center the must have mobile app to access the best African themed comics and games worldwide. We are excited to have launched this in Ghana and are even more excited by the prospects which lie ahead including TV shows, movies and merchandise. ”
Eyram Tawia (CEO, Leti Arts)
The Leti Center is currently available for two platforms, Android and Java phones. It is available as a FREE download from the Google Play Store and as a direct download from the Leti Arts website for Java devices. It is coming soon to the Windows Phone Store, Nokia Ovi Store and Apple’s iOS App Store.
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To get more info visit www.letiarts.com.
About Leti Arts
Leti Arts develops cross-platform interactive media products based on African history and folklore, including digital comics and mobile games. As one of a handful of interactive media studios in sub-Saharan Africa, Leti introduces global audiences to African storytelling.
Leti Arts has offices in Accra, Ghana and Nairobi, Kenya, and was founded by Eyram Tawiah and Wesley Kirinya.
Visit us on http://www.letiarts.com, Facebook, Twitter and Google+
About The True Ananse
The True Ananse is a superhero series from Leti Arts influenced by the African folklore legend from Ghana, Ananse. In The True Ananse, Leti Arts reimagines the story of Kweku Ananse, the trickster, and depicts him as a god turned superhero in modern Africa.
Follow The True Ananse on Facebook, Twitter and Google+
| Contact: Nana Kwabena OwusuLeti ArtsPhone: 020.121.5655Email: [email protected] | 19 Banana Street, Ambassadorial Enclave,East LegonAccra |
Last Friday, October 04, 2013, Ghana’s app developers met at the yearly TopApps Award Ceremony to give recognition to app developers and companies which have excelled in the software space across the country. The event took place at the renowned Kofi Annan Center of Excellence bringing together both government officials and private sector business persons.
Among the award categories for this year were eGovernance App, Finance App, SMS App, Web App, Social App, App Company, App Developer and 10 more others which will be revealed in the rest of the post. The nominees in these categories spanned 3-month old companies to 8-year old companies. The competition, though wide really came down to a matter of usefulness and relevance to the Ghanaian society.
The event was graced by the presence of the Deputy Minister of Communication, Hon. Victoria Hammah, who was glad about the feat software developers in Ghana have attained and reiterated the support of the government for the activities of the private sector.
The awards ceremony then took off. The winners of the various categories are listed below:
· Top App 2013 – MPower Payments
· Mobile App – Nkyea Twi Phrasebook
· SMS App – Infoline, by Nandimobile
· Web App – MPower Payments
· Social App – Farmerline
· Entertainment App – iWarrior, by Leti Games
· Most Innovative New App – MPower Payments
· Top User Experience App – MPower Payments
· Utility App – Retail Tower
· Finance App – MPower Payments
· Health App – MoTeCH
· Education App – MyPassCo
· eGovernance App – 233Law, by Yougora
· Agriculture App – Esoko
· App Developer – Eyram Tawia, of Leti Games
· App Company – SMSGh
It was a great time to see innovation among Ghanaian software developers as they won these awards. For the nominees who didn’t win, this was an assurance that the Ghanaian community was aware of the good works that had begun and a great encouragement to them also.
TopApps Award is powered by PopOutGh, led courageously by Maximus Amertogoh. Earlier this year, PopOut Ghana’s BoxBuzz was nominated among this year’s participants for DEMO Africa event to be held in Kenya later this year.
Tweets about “#InnovationGhana”
There’s absolutely a lot of innovation coming from young Ghanaians all across the globe, and this is championing the course as Ghana continues to be known as one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
The InnovationGhana project is an initiative by The Ministry of Trade and Industry with support from Google to get Ghanaians to appreciate the use of the internet and its impact on the Ghanaian economy.
BloggingGhana is offering a totally awesome Blogging Competition under the Google Innovation Project and is open to bloggers in Ghana. This competition seeks to tickle the thoughts of the blogging community on issues surrounding innovation. The prize amount for the competition is three hundred Ghana Cedi only (GHS 300) for the ultimate winner and two hundred Ghana cedis (Ghs 200) for the runner up. Continue reading to see how you can get involved and be in with a chance of earning some serious cash!
1. CONTEST PERIOD
The competition will run from today till the end of October 2013. You can send in as many posts as you want. You can write on any topic provided the title has Innovation & Ghana in it. Once you publish your post, you can send the link of the post to [email protected] or tweet it with the hashtag #InnovationGhana. Only posts received in the BloggingGhana inbox or with the #InnovationGhana hashtag will be considered.
2. ENTRY
If you are already a registered contributor to BloggingGhana, you will have the option of entering the competition when you sign in to the site using your membership account. If you are not a registered contributor to BloggingGhana don’t worry, you can still enter by directly submit your entry via email to [email protected]. All you have to do is publish your post on your blog and send us the link and voila!…you are in.
3. WINNER SELECTION
A committee will select 3 best post based on the following criteria
1. Number of unique comments on the post
2. Creativity
3. Relevance of post to the topic
The winner will be selected by public voting by November 8th.
4. PRIZES
Winners will be announced on BloggingGhana’s main website and all other related social media platforms. The prize will be paid as a lump sum after verification of winning status. It is a winner’s sole responsibility to redeem the prize amount after announcement. All potential winners are subject to verification at BloggingGhana’s sole discretion. No assignment, transfer or substitution of any prize is permitted. The prize is expressed in Ghanaian Cedi. By accepting a prize, winners agree that their name and likeness may be used for promotional purposes at BloggingGhana’s discretion in any and all media.
5. THE LEGAL STUFF (sorry not us, blame the law people)
BloggingGhana reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds, in its sole discretion, to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Contest or the Website; to be in violation of the User Agreement of the Website; to be acting in violation of these Official Rules; to be acting in a unethical or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person, as determined by BloggingGhana at its sole discretion.
If for any reason this Contest is not capable of being conducted as planned due to infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which, in the sole opinion of BloggingGhana, corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this competition, BloggingGhana reserves the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest. If the Contest is terminated due to tampering or technical difficulties prior to its expiration date, notice will be posted on BloggingGhana’s website at
This contest is part of Google Ghana’s InnovationGhana project to highlight innovation in Ghana.
Innovation hero, Eyram Tawia at Innov@teGhana
Eyram is known in Ghanaian circles as the software entrepreneur whose mission is to bring Ghanaian folklore back to life by translating such local super heroes into games. Yes, games. So the next you hit keys on your mobile or manoeuvre your way through a 5-stage game, you may be doing it with Yaa Asantewa, Kweku Ananse or Obour, the characters, Africa’s first i-phone developer seeks to resurrect through gaming.
This initiative got unto Google Ghana’s radar, thus was selected as one of 5 Innovation heroes selected to lead the Innovation campaign in Ghana. These warriors are to spend some of their time and resources sharing their knowledge through workshops, talks and conferences, a process the Leti Games CEO is perfectly used to. In the past couple of months, Eyram Tewia and his team have participated in many events and projects which focus on training the next generation of Ghanaian innovators and thinkers. The young man’s focus has not only been on growing his business as Ghana’s biggest Gaming company, but on building an industry which will generate new job roles and titles in the field.
On 30th July, the Google Ghana Innovation hero spent his day with young engineers at the Takoradi Poly as part of the Innov@teGhana programme supervised by Freda Yawson. Innov@teGhana is a two week workshop and a competition designed to encourage Ghanaian college students to apply their existing knowledge to developmental problems of today. By teaching concepts of Design for Development and Entrepreneurship.
Eyram shared his success story with the students who were tasked with coming up entrepreneurial designs as part of the project. At the end of his presentation, they had learnt more about his beginning, his team and mission for Leti Games. BloggingGhana as part of the Google Innovation Ghana projects will use its channels to throw more light on what the various Innovation heroes are up to and how you can be a part of this campaign. Follow the #InnovationGhana hashtag on Twitter, join their circles on Google+, watch their videos on youtube and give us a helping hand towards the achievement of this goal.
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