Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to explore the digital entrepreneurship ecosystem of Ghana.
Specifically, it sought to identify the actors in the digital entrepreneurship ecosystem; explore
the success factors of digital entrepreneurship in Ghana; discover the challenges digital
entrepreneurs in Ghana face. In academic discourse, there is a paucity of studies that examine
digital entrepreneurship ecosystems. More so, the sub-Saharan African region has witnessed
an academic marginalization with respect to this research phenomenon, thereby necessitating
this study. The study adopted a qualitative research approach in its enquiry. It drew data from
six (6) respondents to present its case. The snowballing sampling technique was used to draw
the sample from the population with the initial contacts provided by the Accra Digital Centre
Limited. The respondents were digital entrepreneurs and government officials with agencies
or desks responsible for driving digital entrepreneurship in Ghana. Data were collected via
qualitative online survey and analysed using the textual thematic analysis approach. The
study found that digital entrepreneurship ecosystem in Ghana consists of actors such as
government, platform providers, content developers (digital entrepreneurs), media and
investors, mentors, and human resources (academia). These play either direct or indirect roles
and are not bounded by the territories that define Ghana. Also, the study reveals that the
Ghanaian culture was not fully supportive of digital entrepreneurship in Ghana. On the
success factors of digital entrepreneurship in Ghana, it was found that creativity,
collaboration, and funding (CCF) are key to entrepreneurial success in the digital space, with
creativity being the most eminent. Poor internet connectivity, insufficient funding, slow
acceptance of digital products, and inadequate physical infrastructure are the challenges that
digital entrepreneurs in Ghana face. It was then deduced that the challenges of digital
entrepreneurs in Ghana are external to their organizations than internal. The study
recommends that there is yet the need for providing market linkages to digital entrepreneurs
by stakeholders.
