Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has questioned Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations Minister Samuel Nartey George over the feasibility of Ghana’s planned AI compute centre, citing concerns about electricity costs, water supply and the country’s history with locally developed technology projects.
Speaking during JoyNews’s Digital Economy Forum on AI and the Ghana Economy on Wednesday, October 21, Mr Simons argued that the government must address the practical constraints facing the project rather than assume it will succeed.
He said electricity costs would be a major determinant of the facility’s operational efficiency, warning that Ghana could struggle to compete if its energy prices remained significantly higher than the rates the Minister cited for AI computing facilities.
“Nobody builds an AI centre unless the energy, say, the price of energy is roughly 3 cents to 5 cents. So if Ghana does it from 10 cents to 12 cents, that AI data computing centre will not be efficient,” he said.
Mr Simons argued that the facility would either have to charge users more for its services or depend on government subsidies to remain operational.
“If it doesn’t charge more, the government will have to subsidise it,” he said.
He also questioned whether Ghana could guarantee a reliable electricity supply for a facility of that scale, noting that affordable power alone would not be enough without consistent availability.
“Even in terms of the power itself, even if you had the pricing right, the actual availability of power in a country where we were struggling with so-called capacity issues is important. You have to mention that as well,” he said.
The IMANI Africa Vice President also raised concerns about water supply, saying the government needed to account for the substantial volumes required to operate a large data centre. He cited Ghana’s experience with managing a desalination plant as an example of the challenges associated with major infrastructure projects.
“The amount of water you need for a big data centre of that sort is unbelievable,” he said.
Mr Simons further questioned Mr George what had changed in Ghana’s technology ecosystem to make the proposed initiative more likely to succeed than previous efforts to develop and use locally built digital services.
He referenced past attempts to establish locally developed government email services and payroll management software, pointing to the experience of Ghanaian technology entrepreneur Herman Chinery-Hesse, who he said had pushed for the adoption of local software solutions but failed to secure the desired outcome.
“So the question is, why did Herman fail and why would the Honourable Sam George succeed? I want to understand that dynamic. What has changed? What is new? What new ideas have completely transformed that ecosystem?” he asked.
Mr Simons said the government needed to demonstrate what had changed in the country’s technology ecosystem and identify the new ideas or approaches that would prevent the proposed project from encountering similar difficulties.
He called for a rigorous assessment of the initiative, urging the government to open the process to contributions from think tanks and other stakeholders before making final decisions.
“My argument is, let’s learn from history. Let’s do these things analytically, open up, ask think tanks to submit memos, debate it rigorously, finally choose something that is well grounded and robust,” he said.
He criticised what he described as a tendency to praise government initiatives without adequately scrutinising their feasibility, arguing that major technology investments required evidence-based debate and careful analysis.
Mr Simons maintained that his concerns were rooted in a pragmatic assessment of the project’s challenges rather than pessimism.
“It’s not that I’m pessimistic. I’m empirical, I’m pragmatic, and I’m a realist,” he said.