Breakfast Meeting with the University at Buffalo School of Management on AI in Business

Earlier today, Doris Afanyedey, Chief Executive Officer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ghana (AmCham Ghana), hosted a breakfast meeting with Professor Ananth Iyer, Dean of the University at Buffalo School of Management, and Dr. Dorothy Siaw-Asamoah, Clinical Associate Professor and Faculty Director of Global Programs. The session convened AmCham Ghana members within the technology and fintech sectors, including Jason Hickey, Senior Research Scientist at Google, alongside representatives from General Electric, Global Media Alliance, eServices Africa, Yellow Card, and Oracle, for a high-level dialogue on the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in driving innovation, operational efficiency, and policy advancement.

Professor Iyer delivered a compelling presentation on the practical integration of AI across industries, anchored on a four-step framework — Extract, Integrate, Analyze, and Innovate. He demonstrated how open-source AI tools can synthesize vast datasets, reports, and multimedia content into actionable insights, streamlining research and decision-making processes. Drawing from real-world applications, he illustrated how AI can optimize productivity in sectors such as agriculture and supply chain management, referencing Ghana’s cocoa value chain and the U.S. government–funded Supply Chain Activation Network, which leverages AI to enhance collaboration between manufacturers and suppliers.

A key highlight of the engagement came from Google’s Senior Research Scientist, Jason Hickey, who announced that all students across Africa will receive free access to Google’s AI Pro platform. This initiative aims to democratize access to advanced AI resources, promote digital literacy, and empower Africa’s next generation of innovators with the skills and tools required to thrive in the evolving digital economy. The announcement was met with enthusiastic commendation from participants, who recognized its potential to accelerate Africa’s participation in global technological advancement.

In her closing remarks, Ms. Afanyedey reaffirmed AmCham Ghana’s commitment to fostering strategic partnerships between academia, industry, and government to advance AI adoption, ethical governance, and capacity development. She emphasized that AmCham will continue to serve as a platform for dialogue and collaboration that enables businesses to harness emerging technologies for sustainable growth. The session concluded with a networking breakfast, generously sponsored by AmCham member KFC Ghana, providing participants with an opportunity to further engage and exchange ideas on collaborative pathways toward a digitally empowered future.

AmCham Ghana Hosts U.S. Institutional Investors for High-Level Dialogues in Accra

AmCham Ghana, in a strategic co-convening capacity with the Institutional Investor Network (IIN), last Wednesday facilitated a high-conviction delegation of U.S.-based institutional Limited Partners (LPs) for a series of granular, closed-door dialogues in Accra. The session was architected to de-risk and catalyze capital allocation into Ghana’s project pipeline, with a strategic focus on the critical minerals value chain and the structuring of bankable, ESG-compliant opportunities.

The convening assembled a cross-functional cohort of public sector stakeholders, General Partners (GPs), and corporates to perform a deep-dive on Ghana’s gold sector reform trajectory and to leverage its nascent downstream processing capabilities, thereby positioning the jurisdiction as a strategic enabler of the global energy transition and tech infrastructure build-out.

Core Vertical Focus and Market Positioning

The discourse was characterized by its focus on alpha generation and strategic market entry. A primary vertical was the critical minerals and technology nexus, where speakers underscored Ghana’s role in the strategic materials supply chain, essential for semiconductor fabrication, energy storage solutions, and compute infrastructure. Mr. Richmond, CEO of Energy Resources Company, provided a granular analysis of the gold sector, emphasizing the significant arbitrage opportunity presented by formalizing the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) segment and creating vertically integrated local champions to capture more of the value-at-stake.

A parallel session on domestic capital mobilization conducted a forensic examination of Ghana’s pension and insurance asset base. The dialogue centered on tactical asset allocation (TAA) shifts, advocating for a strategic overlay to increase weightings in alternatives and listed equities, contingent upon regulatory modernization. The concept of creating multi-jurisdiction, securitized vehicles and exploring asset tokenization was tabled as a mechanism to achieve the requisite scale and liquidity for global capital deployment. A core tension identified was the capacity-policy misalignment, with a call to action for upskilling trustee boards on private market valuation and monitoring, concurrent with a liberalization of offshore remittance limits and concentration thresholds to optimize the efficient frontier for local institutional investors.

Execution Framework and Forward Integration

The forum was explicitly designed as a springboard for capital formation and deal origination. AmCham Ghana is now operationalizing the outputs through a multi-pronged execution framework. This involves the systematic synthesis of key takeaways into an investable opportunity brief, followed by active facilitation of bespoke commercial diplomacy between aligned LPs, GPs, and project sponsors, including coordinating technical site due diligence and regulatory interface. The Chamber will further leverage its convening power to drive sector-specific working groups focused on derisking capital stacks for critical minerals beneficiation and structuring blended finance vehicles to crowd-in domestic pension capital.

The proceedings culminated in a curated investor dinner, fostering high-value, peer-level engagement to translate commercial intent into binding term sheets.

The overarching market signal emanating from the dialogue is that Ghana represents a compelling strategic allocation for investors seeking non-correlated, value-add exposure in a reform-oriented, transparent jurisdiction poised for exponential growth.

For proprietary deal flow access or to engage with the working groups, please contact the AmCham Ghana Secretariat.