Greetings Glocal Citizens!

This week’s conversation comes to you in two parts and is courtesy of a connection made by my guest from Episode 34, Stacey Enyame. Recognizing the intersection between tech and community/economic development and my background, Stacey suggested I join the Keta MakerSpace community on WhatsApp--a brainchild of #GlobalGhanaian, Paul Kwesi Damalie. We go into detail about the community and the vision for the platform and new city in the making in Part 2 of the conversation, both parts are not to be missed! Paul is founder of Damalie Innovation Holdings Group which invests in and builds companies in health tech, sports value chain, gaming and family entertainment, urban infrastructure & development and trade & embedded finance, climate resileince. Previously he was the co-founder of Inclusive Innovations Inc. which developed the Appruve API, product making it easy for financial services to verify individuals and businesses all over Africa. In 2023 Appruve was acquired by Smile ID.

As a Fintech industry influencer, he is among Untapt's Top 23 fintech influencers to follow on X; he is a Chapter Lead of Next Money, the global thought leader community for stakeholders within the financial services and technology ecosystem. He organizes events (meetups & conferences) that create opportunities for stakeholders to discuss current trends, explore opportunities through networking and influence policy in the financial services ecosystem. He also has experience consulting for fintech startups and new market entrants into West Africa, working closely with fintech innovation programmes, accelerators and investors as well as financial inclusion research institutions.

Where to find Paul?

On LinkedIn

On X

On Instagram

On Facebook

What’s Paul reading?

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz

Every.to

What’s Paul listening to?

Funaná

Kizomba

Other topics of interest:

Keta Coastal Analysis

Albert and Comfort Ocran

DSF Lab

Caribou Digital

Afropolitan Network State

Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin talks Charter Cities an the Charter Cities Institute

New City Concepts - Zuzalu, Próspera, Fumba Town, Itana

On Digital Nomads

Playground.ai

Google for Startups

Y Combinator

Sand Hill Road

Tokeh Beach, Sierra Leone

Special Guest: Paul Damalie.