During the week of May 12-16, 2025, a reverse mission took place in the Canary Islands, during which a delegation from C.K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences (CKT-UTAS) of Ghana visited us. The mission was organized by Mottum Analytica with the support of the Government of the Canary Islands and Proexca.
This initiative is part of the support process that Mottum has developed through two consultancies aimed at designing and implementing a roadmap for data management in key sectors such as climate, health, and agriculture in northern Ghana. The overall objective of this mission was to explore strategic partnerships between CKT-UTAS and public, private, and academic stakeholders in the Canary Islands ecosystem.
The Ghanaian delegation was composed of Prof. Edward Baagyere, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Technology and Sciences at CKT-UTAS, and Rosa María Druguet, a specialist from the university's Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy. Both actively participated in institutional meetings and technical visits, sharing their perspectives on the challenges and opportunities for cooperation between West Africa and the Canary Islands in the areas of science, education, and data management.
Achievements and Impact
During the mission, 12 strategic meetings were held with representatives from the Canary Islands government, universities, technology centers, cooperation agencies, and private sector companies. These meetings and visits included visits to the Idecnet and Atlantis Technologies data centers, which helped to visualize and understand the types of challenges that may be encountered during the project's execution.
The Casa África organization was kind to host the sessions with the public administration such as the Directorate General for Relations with Africa, Proexca, the Chamber of Commerce of Tenerife and the CEOE. It was also possible to establish conversations with the most important academic institutions in the region: the University of La Laguna and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Finally, opinions were exchanged with Call Center companies (Contactel Teleservicios) and educational innovation companies such as Digital Codesign and Reboot Academy. These instances validated the Canary Islands as an intercontinental platform, with a key position as a hinge between Spain and Africa.
The most significant milestones include:
- A technical visit to two data centers in the Canary Islands reinforces CKT-UTAS's vision of becoming a leading institution in data management applied to sustainable development in its region. This vision, defined with Mottum in earlier phases, is beginning to materialize more clearly.
- Initial designs for a knowledge exchange program, which could allow African professionals and students to undertake internships at academic centers and/or companies in the Canary Islands, facilitating the transfer of skills in data, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence.
- Identification of future lines of collaboration, both for joint funding of international projects and for the implementation of training and open innovation programs..
Conclusions
The reverse mission has significantly contributed to strengthening institutional relations between Ghana and the Canary Islands and has validated the usefulness of cooperation actions.
This mission is also aligned with Ghana's national objectives regarding digital transformation. Initiatives such as the One Million Coders Program, promoted by the Ministry of Communications, seek to train young talent in programming and technological skills. Collaboration between CKT-UTAS and stakeholders in the Canary Islands can become a concrete way to realize this national vision, facilitating exchanges, practical training, and the adoption of best practices in established technological ecosystems such as the Canary Islands.
At Mottum, we reaffirm our commitment to a vision of international cooperation focused on the ethical, practical, and transformative use of data: Data for Humanity.
To read more about Mottum's Data Roadmap design for CKT-UTAS, click here.