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Malta, Ghana set sights on practical AI partnership
Malta and Ghana have an opportunity to build a forward-looking partnership in artificial intelligence, combining Malta’s institutional agility and European regulatory experience with Ghana’s talent, scale and regional influence.
Malta’s High Commissioner to Ghana, Ronald Micallef, made the call at One Vecta Africa AI Week 2026 in Accra, where he proposed a structured dialogue bringing together governments, regulators, universities and the private sector.
He said the dialogue should move beyond broad declarations and identify a small number of practical initiatives with responsible institutions and measurable outcomes.
“Malta’s experience offers three broad lessons: build institutions people can trust, give everyone the capacity to understand and question artificial intelligence, and keep human values and national purpose at the centre,” High Commissioner Micallef said.
Malta launched its national AI strategy in 2019 with a vision extending to 2030. The country has since strengthened the institutional foundations needed to regulate and support the responsible use of emerging technologies.
Central to this effort is the Malta Digital Innovation Authority, established by law and designated as Malta’s notifying authority and principal market-surveillance authority under the European Union’s AI Act, working alongside other sectoral regulators.
“A strategy needs more than ambition. Every commitment must have a responsible institution, a budget and a measurable result,” the High Commissioner stated.
He also highlighted Malta’s AI for All programme, developed by the Malta Digital Innovation Authority in collaboration with the University of Malta. The free online programme allows citizens and residents aged 14 and over to acquire foundational AI knowledge in Maltese or English.
According to High Commissioner Micallef, AI literacy is rapidly becoming a civic necessity. People must be able not only to use artificial intelligence, but also to question its outputs, recognise its limitations and understand how it may affect their lives.
Drawing on Ghana’s tradition of Sankofa, he warned that the development of artificial intelligence raises important questions about whose histories, languages and knowledge are preserved.
He quoted the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who recently observed: “The palace must remain a guardian of memory. But it must also become a workshop for the future.”
“Sankofa has a direct relevance to artificial intelligence,” High Commissioner Micallef said. “If societies do not make deliberate choices, their languages, memories and ways of understanding the world may be diminished rather than strengthened.”
He linked this thinking to Project ETHICS, a Malta-supported initiative developed with Step Up Nigeria and partners in Ghana. The project encourages young people to examine integrity, empathy, responsibility, fairness and service within their everyday lives and communities.
The High Commissioner said Ghana’s interest in strengthening ethics education offers fertile ground for cooperation, particularly as young people prepare to engage with increasingly powerful but fallible technological systems.
He also invited Ghanaian institutions to participate in shaping the proposed Sovereign Technology Centre on Malta’s sister island of Gozo.
The centre, which remains at a formative stage, is envisaged as a solar-powered platform for research and testing in sovereign technologies, including artificial intelligence.
“Sovereign AI does not mean isolation,” he explained. “It means retaining meaningful control over essential data, computing infrastructure, standards and critical systems.”
Potential areas for Malta–Ghana cooperation include AI assurance and regulation, AI literacy, ethics education, data governance, joint research and collaboration with the proposed Gozo centre.
High Commissioner Micallef stressed that the partnership should not involve simply transferring one country’s model to another.
“Malta and Ghana bring different but complementary strengths. The purpose is to learn from one another and build approaches suited to our respective national realities.”
“The future will belong not to those with the most intelligent machines, but to those with the wisdom to decide what intelligence is for,” he concluded.
By Chris Koney
A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Sammy Ayeh has picked up nomination forms to contest for the position of Deputy National Communications Officer position.
Announcing his intention, Dr. Ayeh said he is offering himself to help communicate the party’s vision clearly and connect its message with the aspirations of Ghanaians.
He expressed deep gratitude to the party’s National Communications Officer, Lawyer Sammy Gyamfi, describing him as an able leader on whose shoulders he has risen.
“His exceptional leadership, mentorship and confidence in me have shaped my journey and strengthened my resolve to serve,” Dr. Ayeh stated.
He said if elected, he will seek to build on that foundation by strengthening research-driven communication, empowering grassroots communicators, and enhancing strategic media engagement.
Dr. Ayeh humbly appealed to party members and supporters for their support.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The Data Protection Commission has called on the Minority Caucus in Parliament, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, JoyNews and other media houses to protect the personal information of 1,964 Ghanaians evacuated from South Africa.
In a press release issued on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, the Commission expressed concern over the public disclosure of the evacuees’ personal details, including their names, signatures and records of financial assistance received.
It warned that making such information public could expose the affected individuals to identity theft, fraud and other forms of harm, especially given the threats to their safety that some of them may have faced.
The Commission explained that the 1992 Constitution protects the dignity and privacy of every individual. It also cited the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843), which sets out rules for the lawful collection, use and disclosure of personal information.
While acknowledging the importance of transparency, parliamentary oversight, the right to information and press freedom, the Commission stressed that these principles do not automatically justify the unrestricted publication of personal details.
It said the disclosure of the records by the Minority Caucus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, JoyNews and other media organisations must be assessed based on the law, the purpose of the disclosure and the privacy rights of the individuals involved.
The Commission further noted that although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Parliament are registered data controllers in good standing, their registration does not exempt them from their legal responsibilities under the Data Protection Act.
It has therefore urged all the parties involved to take appropriate steps to protect the affected individuals, including immediately restricting access to or removing personal details from publicly available records where their continued disclosure is not legally justified.
The Commission announced plans to conduct a regulatory review to determine whether the disclosures had a lawful basis, what safeguards were applied and whether the privacy rights of the evacuees had been adequately protected.
It said it would engage the relevant parties as part of the review and take appropriate regulatory action if any breach of the law is established.
The Commission reiterated that protecting personal information and respecting human dignity must remain central to efforts to promote public accountability.
By: Jacob Aggrey
