Talented Ghanaian Man Nana Ghartey Develops Abena AI, The First Voice Assistant In Twi

• Ghanaian man Nana Ghartey has developed the first African hands-free offline voice assistant called Abena
• He said it took him six years to build the app after he developed one in Fante for his grandmother in 2013
• Since he launched the app in 2022, he has added more features, including games and the reading of Bible verses in several languages

Nana Ghartey, a Ghanaian man whom his grandmother raised, has developed Abena AI to help his old woman after he left her for Accra.

Abena AI is the first African hands-free offline voice assistant, a feat which took him six years to accomplish.

Nana Ghartey uploads Abena AI on Google Play Store

The young creative released his work on Google Play Store in April 2022 as a Mobobi product.

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On Google Play Store, the ‘About’ section of the app indicated that Abena AI can be used even without the internet.

“Meet Abena. Africa's first hands-free Offline Voice Assistant. Made by Africans for Africa to solve African problems. Abena is fast and works without the internet.”

The developer told Techcabal in an interview that he decided to build a voice assistant app to help his grandmother, who lived alone and needed assistance when using her phone due to her vision impairment.

In 2013, Nana Ghartey built Kofi, a voice assistant that supported Fante, his grandmother’s preferred language and one spoken by six million Ghanaians. He used his grandmother’s voice and that of his sister.

The app allowed Nana Ghartey’s grandmother to use the phone without scrolling through the home screen.

He said:

“All she had to do was tap the side of the button to launch the Kofi app, and she could instantly receive news updates, play music, stream radio programs, and follow Twitter trends—curated by the AI with human moderators to prevent misinformation—without having a Twitter account.”

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Ghartey later decided to build a voice assistant in Ghana’s most widely spoken language, Twi.

Improved features on Abena AI after it was released

Since Abena AI was released, features have been added to improve the app and give users a better experience.

Some of these features include services support for Ghanaians who are visually impaired, games, and the reading of Bible verses in Asante Twi, Akuapem Twi, Fante, and English KJV.

Watch a video of how the app works below:

Ghanaian man shows physical transformation after spending six months in the UK

In a different story, a Ghanaian on TikTok, @king_bruce25, shared images of his physical transformation after moving to the UK.

The photos included his 25 years of stay in Ghana and in comparison to photos of his six months stay in the UK.

Source: YEN.com.gh