The blogging and social media scene in Ghana has improved in the last five years. The West African country has seen the number of bloggers in the country grow from just a handful in 2005 to several hundreds this year. This trend was facilitated by a bold step taken by a Swedish blogger who had moved to Ghana some five years ago. Kajsa Hallberg Adu who is now the Chair of Ghana’s biggest association of bloggers brought all the bloggers who were active online under one roof to discuss their passion. With time, this small group of internet users decided to introduce blogging and the use of social media tools to many other people who may be interested but just didn’t know how. This selfish desire to spread such knowledge lead to what has today become the nation’s biggest blogging and social media event.
BloggingGhana also made a lot of impact, locally and internationally in 2012 during the election period. A special team of bloggers came together to use social media and their influence to break apathy and educate the online community in civic education matters, politics, governance and on other relevant topics. The impact of the project team and its string of volunteers was felt and recognized by international media houses such as Mashable and Aljazeera.
To do a lot more than they have done, today, BloggingGhana, which boasts of a membership exceeding 100, has launched an online campaign on Indiegogo to fundraise for what they call a social media hub. According to the team behind this campaign, the hub will streamline the activities of the organisation and go a long way to provide the opportunity for more students and professionals to be trained in blogging and social media. The team through various activities has raised some money to for the property they want to convert into what will become Ghana’s first and perhaps only social media hub.
I am happy to have been a part of the group which has contributed immensely towards the advancement of digital media and citizen journalism in Ghana. If you have some time, check out the video below and do lend your support towards this worthy cause. You can donate by accessing this Indiegogo link.