Edtech Insights with Kwame Nyatuame: Our Edtech future: What success looks like in 2030

Close your eyes and picture Ghana in 2030. A girl in Tamale finishes a virtual lab experiment on her tablet, then helps her neighbour debug a small app she built to track borehole repairs.

A teacher in a small town outside Sunyani uses a smart dashboard to spot which pupils are falling behind in reading, and a community learning hub (powered by solar and a local server) runs evening coding clubs for girls.

Universities partner with local Edtech startups to offer micro?credentials employers know and trust. Employers across Accra and beyond recruit for skills shown on digital portfolios, not just paper certificates.

That is not a fantasy. It’s a practical, reachable picture of success – if we make deliberate choices between now and 2030.

The starting point – where we are today

The foundations are in place, but gaps remain. Ghana is increasingly connected: as of January 2025 there were about 24.3 million internet users, roughly 70percent penetration, largely via mobile phones – a huge advantage for digital learning at scale.

The government’s Smart Schools Project aims to put a tablet in the hands of roughly 1.3 million SHS students, signalling political will to mainstream digital learning. That’s a bold move, but tablets alone won’t deliver outcomes without power, connectivity, teacher capacity and local content.

Across the continent, tech investment is rebounding: Africa attracted US$3.2 billion in tech funding in 2024 — money that can accelerate African Edtech solutions if channelled wisely. Meanwhile, learning challenges remain stark: globally and regionally the World Bank’s “learning poverty” measure reminds us that many children still cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10 – a sobering call to focus Edtech on learning, not just access.

What success looks like in 2030 — five concrete milestones

1. Every school is ‘Edtech-ready’ (infrastructure power offline options) – Success means that basic schools in small towns have reliable power (often solar), at least one connected device per small learning group, and offline-first content servers that sync when connectivity is available. The Smart Schools tablet rollout becomes meaningful because devices are supported with power and local content—no more promising tech that sits idle for lack of charge or signal.
2. Teachers lead the transition (capacity, communities, career incentives) –  By 2030, teacher professional development in digital pedagogy is routine, practical and incentivised. Teachers have access to coaching, communities of practice, and short micro-credentials that recognise their new skills. When teachers own the tools, student learning improves.
3. Local Edtech ecosystems are thriving (made-forAfrica platforms at scale) –Homegrown platforms aligned with Ghana’s curriculum — offering mother?tongue stories, WAEC?aligned practice, virtual labs and career pathways — are widely used. Startups graduate from pilots to procurement contracts and sustainable revenues, supported by blended finance and partnerships with telcos and schools. This growth is fuelled by the rising continental VC and impact capital seen in recent years.
4. Data drives improvement — ethically and usefully – Schools use simple, privacy?respecting dashboards to track attendance, learning progress and participation. Early?warning systems identify struggling learners and route support. Data is used to improve teaching, not to punish. Safeguards protect student privacy and keep data local where appropriate.
5. Education produces citizens who build the Ghana we want – Beyond metrics, success means graduates who are capable, competent, audacious, empathetic and patriotic — people who apply knowledge to real problems: building local businesses, improving health outcomes, making agriculture smarter, designing public services. Education’s moral purpose — nation building — remains central.

Practical examples – what scales and why

• Offline-first content servers local language lessons reach learners in low?connectivity districts. Solar-powered “learning hubs” and talking?book initiatives have shown measurable gains in reading in comparable contexts and should be scaled in Ghana’s hardest-to-reach communities. (These are practical complements to national tablet programmes).
• Micro?credentials and stackable certificates let learners show skills quickly. By 2030, employers will expect verifiable, bite?sized evidence of skills — not just degrees. Partnerships between universities, industry and Edtech firms will make these certifications credible.
• Public–private partnerships (PPPs) for sustainable delivery. When telcos subsidise educational data, when foundations incubate local content creators, and when government procurement buys locally built platforms, scale becomes financially and operationally possible. Recent industry funding shows capital is available for well?structured opportunities.

The risks if we get it wrong

• Technology without pedagogy — devices will collect dust and budgets will be wasted.
• Widening inequities — urban and private school students benefit while rural learners fall further behind.
• Data harms — without clear rules, student data can be misused.
• Short-term pilots with no scale plan — many promising ideas die because they never move from pilot to policy.

We must avoid these traps by designing for learning, equity and sustainability from day one.

A short roadmap to 2030 — what leaders should do now

1. Match devices with power and connectivity plans. Tablet distribution must be paired with solar chargers, community Wi?Fi points and offline content strategies.
2. Make teacher training central and continuous. Fund practical CPD, micro?credentials and mentorships — not just one?off workshops.
3. Prioritise local content & local creators. Create a fast?track procurement window for Ghanaian Edtech firms that meet quality standards.
4. Mobilise blended finance for scale. Use government seed funding to de?risk private investment into Edtech that targets learning gains and inclusion.
5. Enshrine data protection and ethical use in policy. Clear rules for student data, transparency and community consent will build trust.
6. Measure learning outcomes, not just inputs. National dashboards should track reading and numeracy gains, progression and employment outcomes linked to Edtech programmes.

The final word – education as a national project

Technology is a tool; education is our national project. The goal isn’t to fill classrooms with gadgets — it’s to nurture citizens who will build the Ghana we want: skilled, brave, caring and proud.

If by 2030 we have connected schools, confident teachers, thriving local Edtech companies, and a clear focus on learning outcomes, then we will have done more than adopt technology. We will have shaped a future where every child has the possibility to contribute to a prosperous, just and creative Ghana. That future is within reach — but only if we plan for learning first, technology second, and nation?building above all.

>>>the writer is an Edtech enthusiast, writer, and President of the Ghana Edtech Alliance. He is passionate about telling powerful stories at the intersection of education, technology, and human potential. Email – [email protected]

The post Edtech Insights with Kwame Nyatuame: Our Edtech future: What success looks like in 2030 appeared first on The Business & Financial Times.

Read Full Story