AI app helping visually impaired people use mobile money wins GH¢70,000 at UG hackathon

A mobile app that allows visually impaired persons to send and withdraw mobile money with ease has won the top prize of GH¢70,000 at the AI Summit 2026, held at the University of Ghana (UG), Legon.

The app, built by Team Vomo, an interdisciplinary team of students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), was one of several artificial intelligence (AI) solutions designed to make digital services accessible to persons with disabilities and speakers of Ghanaian languages.

Other finalists built tools that let users make mobile money transactions and buy airtime or data by voice command in local languages, some of which work offline.

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Speaking at the event, the Deputy Minister for Education, Dr. Clement Abas Apaak, said, “The question is no longer whether AI will influence education. It already does.” He urged the innovators to focus on impact. “Do not build simply to impress the judges. Build to make a difference,” he said.

The Vice-Chancellor of UG, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, noted that many African languages remain poorly represented in AI systems. She stressed that persons with disabilities must take part in the design, development and testing of solutions intended for them. At the event, she also launched Nana Aba AI, a voice and text assistant developed by the HCI Lab to help students, staff and the public access information about the University.

A team of UG Computer Science students, Team Code Craft, placed second with GH¢20,000, while Team KasaPon, with students from UG and KNUST, took third place with GH¢10,000.

Special awards went to Team SMARTi of the University of Mines and Technology for Best Digital Experience Innovation, Team Manex of Academic City University and UG for Best Financial Inclusion Solution, and Team Nexus of UG for Best Female-Led

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The hackathon attracted 131 teams made up of 550 participants, among them 85 women and 54 persons with disabilities. Every solution had to work in at least one Ghanaian language and be accessible to persons with disabilities.

The competition is an initiative of the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Lab of the Department of Computer Science, UG. MTN Ghana sponsored this edition under a partnership with the University, signed in September 2026, which also covers training, internships and support for student innovation.

In a speech delivered on his behalf, the Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, called for sustained investment in Ghanaian language technologies.

The Lead of the HCI Lab, Prof. Isaac Wiafe, said inadequate funding remains a major obstacle to the development of local AI. He announced that the Lab will give the finalists technical assistance and free access to its foundational AI models.

Representing the telecommunications giant in Ghana, the Senior Manager for Digital Analytics and Monetisation, Kwame Adu Manu, said the future of AI in Ghana must be inclusive and developed by Ghanaians. “We want to reach a point where we can refer to their innovations just as we do today with global platforms,” he said.

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