Forbes honours two Ghanaian tech entrepreneurs
The national drive towards socio-economic development through technological advancement has received a major boost from Forbes (Africa), which has recognised the sterling work of two Ghanaians in the Technology Category of its 2018 “30 Under 30” honours.
Forbes, the global media company which focuses on business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership and lifestyle, listed Messrs Kofi Genfi and Nii Osae Osae Dade, both 24, the Co-founders of CYST, among Africa’s top 30 young technology entrepreneurs under 30 years who have introduced innovative businesses that are shaping their societies.
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CYST
CYST is a software innovation company that specialises in artificial intelligence to create technology solutions. The duo founded the company in 2013 and have since contributed hugely to Ghana’s move to improve financial inclusion.
The company also has a research arm called the ‘CYST Research Institute’, which focuses on artificial intelligence-based research and development such as natural language processing (a system that allows computers to understand and communicate in human language).
In partnership with telecommunication companies, CYST has access to over 15 million subscribers through its platforms.
Its partners include MTN Ghana, Vodafone Ghana, AirtelTigo Ghana, Unity Link and Data Protection Commission.
Mazzuma
Forbes praised CYST for its flagship product, Mazzuma (a slang for money), which is a mobile money payment system that utilises secure infrastructure and crypto-currency to enable seamless payments.
The Mazzuma token, referred to as MAZ, is a key payment medium in the Mazzuma ecosystem. Transactions made on the Mazzuma platform are instantaneous.
Appreciation
Mr Genfi, who is a product of Ashesi University and the Director of Strategy at CYST, thanked Forbes for the recognition and stressed that the company would continue to work harder to improve its services to create simple and easy-to-use technological solutions which were relevant to local markets, while adhering to international standards.
“Our flagship product, Mazzuma, has gained a lot of attraction and is recognised by the Vice-President, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, for its efforts in driving financial inclusion,” he pointed out.
Mr Genfi added that, “The recognition by Forbes lends a great deal of credibility to our mission as a company and firmly plants Ghana on the international scene in the technological space.”
For his part, Nii Dade, who is also the Director of Software Engineering at CYST, said the Forbes honour would spur him and his team on to do more research and create groundbreaking innovations to solve everyday problems that would impact directly on Ghana’s socio-economic development.
Outlook
“Our next goal is to expand our services internationally through our merger of artificial intelligence and blockchain services,” Nii Dade, a product of the University of Ghana, said