Why digital voting is becoming the new normal for Ghanaian events

Ghana’s voting culture is changing as more awards schemes, pageants, reality shows, schools, professional associations, entertainment events and community initiatives move away from paper ballots and manual vote counting.

The shift reflects a broader change in how audiences participate in events.

Ghanaians increasingly register for events online, make payments through mobile money, follow contestants on social media and interact with brands and creators through their phones. Voting is gradually becoming part of the same digital experience.

However, digital voting is about more than putting a ballot on a website. For organisers, the challenge is to provide a system that is accessible to different categories of voters while ensuring that votes, payments and results can be managed reliably.

One platform operating in this space is BuddyVotes, which provides online and USSD voting services for awards, pageants, schools, reality shows, clubs, unions, dinner events and other public voting campaigns.

The platform operates in Ghana and Nigeria and says more than 100,000 unique people have participated in voting events powered by its infrastructure.

According to the company, the milestone has provided insights into how audiences across the two markets are choosing to participate in digital voting.

Why e-voting is gaining ground

Traditional voting remains relevant for many organisations, but manual processes can become increasingly difficult to manage when an event involves dozens of nominees or thousands of voters.

For awards organisers and pageant organisers, for instance, supporters may be spread across different regions and countries. Schools and associations may also need to reach students, parents, members and supporters through multiple channels.

Digital voting can bring several parts of the process into one system, allowing organisers to create voting campaigns, manage categories and nominees, receive votes, monitor participation and process results.

For voters, it provides the ability to participate remotely without necessarily attending an event physically.

But Ghana’s digital environment also presents an important consideration: not every potential voter relies on a smartphone or a stable internet connection.

That has made the availability of USSD an important feature of the local e-voting market.

Online versus USSD voting

The choice between online and USSD voting largely depends on the audience an organiser wants to reach.

Online voting can offer smartphone users a more detailed experience, allowing them to browse nominees, read profiles and interact with a campaign through a website.

It can also extend participation beyond Ghana, enabling supporters living abroad to vote for contestants or nominees where the voting system permits international participation.

USSD, on the other hand, allows people to participate without requiring a smartphone or an internet connection.

Data published by BuddyVotes in its analysis of USSD and online voting indicates that 73.5% of transactions across the voting events it analysed were made through USSD, compared with 26.5% through online voting.

The same analysis reported 99.983% uptime for the infrastructure covered by the data.

While such figures relate specifically to the events and infrastructure analysed by the company, they highlight a broader point about Ghana's digital participation landscape: online access does not necessarily mean that every voter will prefer an internet-based voting experience.

Some voters may have limited data, while others may use basic phones or simply find USSD faster and more familiar.

For organisers seeking to maximise participation, offering both options can therefore provide broader access.

Getting a USSD code for awards voting

For an awards organiser, introducing USSD voting does not necessarily require building an independent telecommunications and payment system.

E-voting platforms such as BuddyVotes provide the technology for creating voting campaigns and connecting USSD participation to the wider voting system.

This can be useful for awards and pageants where voters are spread across different regions and have varying levels of access to smartphones and internet services.

However, having a USSD code alone is not enough.

The USSD channel needs to connect properly with the system managing the campaign, votes, payments and results. An integrated platform can therefore offer organisers a more complete solution than a standalone USSD service.

The role of mobile money

Mobile money has become an important part of Ghana’s digital economy, and paid voting has increasingly become part of that ecosystem.

For voting campaigns where participants pay to cast votes, the payment process can influence the overall user experience.

Organisers therefore need to consider not only how votes are recorded but also how transactions are processed and connected to individual voting campaigns.

BuddyVotes offers payment-based voting alongside card payment options, reflecting the mobile-first nature of Ghana's digital market.

This can be particularly relevant to awards, pageants and competitions where paid voting forms part of the event's revenue model.

What organisers should look for in an e-voting platform

As digital voting becomes more common, organisers are likely to look beyond the basic availability of a voting link or USSD code.

Factors such as accessibility, online and USSD support, scalability, payment integration, results management, reliability and customer support can all influence the choice of platform.

BuddyVotes says these issues were among the subjects discussed when it brought more than 100 event organisers and industry stakeholders together for its first Community Meetup in April 2026.

The event focused on the challenges involved in scaling events across Africa and the technology required to support organisers and audiences.

The experience points to a growing expectation that e-voting platforms should provide more than a mechanism for casting votes.

Organisers increasingly require infrastructure that can remain reliable during live events, while voters expect simple and accessible ways to participate.

Beyond the voting website

Another development in the e-voting market is the integration of voting technology into existing websites and applications.

BuddyVotes has introduced APIs and widgets that allow businesses, developers and organisations to incorporate voting into their own digital platforms.

This means a pageant, media organisation or other event operator can potentially provide voting within its existing digital environment rather than directing audiences to a separate voting website.

For developers, APIs can also provide greater flexibility in creating customised voting experiences.

Expanding beyond Ghana

The growth of digital voting is not limited to Ghana.

BuddyVotes currently operates in Ghana and Nigeria, giving it exposure to two of West Africa’s larger digital markets.

The platform says its infrastructure supports multiple currencies and different payment and participation preferences, allowing organisers to run voting campaigns across borders.

Cross-border participation is particularly relevant to entertainment, awards and pageantry, where contestants can have supporters in multiple countries.

Faster access to voting revenue

For organisers running paid voting campaigns, managing the revenue generated from votes is another important consideration.

Voting revenue may be required to meet expenses such as event production, vendors, prizes and other operational costs.

BuddyVotes has introduced what it describes as instant payouts for organisers in Ghana and Nigeria, allowing event operators to access funds generated through voting more quickly.

Faster access to revenue can provide organisers with greater flexibility when managing the financial demands of an event.

Data protection and trust

As voting becomes increasingly digital, concerns around privacy and data protection are also becoming more important.

Voting campaigns can involve personal information such as names, telephone numbers and email addresses, while paid voting can also involve payment-related information.

Organisers therefore have to consider how the platforms they use collect, process and protect participant information.

BuddyVotes says it is certified by Ghana's Data Protection Commission, which forms part of its data protection and privacy framework.

For organisers, compliance and responsible data handling are increasingly important considerations when selecting technology for public participation campaigns.

The changing face of e-voting in Ghana

The growth of digital voting suggests that the future of event voting in Ghana may not be defined by a single channel.

Smartphones, basic phones, USSD, websites, mobile money and other digital payment methods are likely to continue operating alongside one another as organisers seek to reach increasingly diverse audiences.

For platforms operating in the sector, the challenge will therefore extend beyond simply recording votes.

Reliability, accessibility, payment integration, data protection, scalability and the ability to support different participation channels will increasingly determine how useful an e-voting platform is to organisers.

BuddyVotes' experience provides one example of how the market is evolving, from basic online voting towards broader voting infrastructure that includes USSD, APIs, widgets, payments and cross-border participation.

For Ghanaian organisers, the wider lesson is straightforward: digital voting is becoming less about the ballot itself and more about the overall participation experience.

As audiences become increasingly accustomed to digital services, the platforms that can make voting accessible, reliable and convenient across different devices and payment channels are likely to play a growing role in the country's events and entertainment ecosystem.