In 1993, while most Ghanaians had never seen a computer, a Ghanaian walked into a room with 10 telephone lines and connected a whole country to the world.
His name is Prof. Nii Narku Quaynor. CNN calls him Father of the Internet in Africa.
Last week, he sat for an interview that every Ghanaian policymaker must watch before they attend any AI conference, any digitalization launch, any http://Ghana.gov launch. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bsXMFr-RhI
Because his story is not about internet. It is about Ghana — how Ghana kills what Ghana should celebrate.
“If you like something, you should get near”
That is how he got into Computer Science. Simple curiosity.
Prof. Quaynor was abroad, with a promising career in the US, at the top of the world where internet was being born. He could have stayed. He would have been a millionaire many times over. He chose to return to Ghana.
He says today, his younger self would question that decision.
Why? Because Ghana betrayed him.
In 1993, through his company Network Computer Systems (NCS), he made history. With just 10 telephone lines, he connected Ghana to the Internet for the very first time. First in West Africa. At a time when Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa were not online, Ghana was online.
That is not small. That decision is why Ghana today can brag about mobile money, about fintech, about digitalization. He laid the cable, literally.
“NCS could have become today’s Google — if it hadn’t been shut down”
This is the most painful part of the interview.
NCS was not just an internet provider. It was building search, building email, building domains. In the early 90s, Google did not exist. Facebook did not exist. NCS had the engineers, had the .gh domain, had the head start.
Then, it was shut down.
Prof. Quaynor does not shout. He says quietly: “I feel betrayed by my own country.”
He says he has forgiven those who did it, because they acted out of ignorance. But forgiveness does not bring back a lost Google.
Why was NCS shut down? Because Ghana has never known how to manage pioneers. We have a culture where every regulator wants to own what the innovator built. As he says in the interview:
“The .gh domain is supposed to be mine but everybody thinks it belongs to them and they want to take it from me.”
The .gh domain — Ghana’s digital land — should have been managed by the man who brought internet, with a clear commercial model to fund more innovation. Instead, it became a political football. Ministries, regulators, agencies all fighting over it. Today, .gh is underused, expensive, and Ghanaians prefer .com. We lost the digital real estate.
“The term Father of Internet was coined by CNN. The challenge however is that everybody wants to be the Father although they lack extensive contribution and recognition”
That sentence is Ghana in one line.
When something succeeds, everybody wants to father it. When it needs protection, nobody fathers it.
Today, everybody wants to be called tech guru, digital champion, father of this, father of that, because they bought data bundles. But who laid the 10 telephone lines?
LESSONS LEARNED FOR GHANA — THE GHANA WE MUST NOT REPEAT
This interview drops at a time when Ghana is dealing with another scandal — a visa scandal at Ministry of Sports, NSA, GTA — $623,000, fake staff lists, fake journalists. That scandal and Prof. Quaynor’s betrayal share one root: Ghana does not protect genuine talent, but rewards fake lists.
Lesson 1: We celebrate returnees only in speeches.
We tell diaspora to come home. Prof. Quaynor came home. He brought internet. We shut down his company. Today, we tell diaspora to come build fintech. What assurance do they have that NCS will not happen to them again?
If we want diaspora to return, we need a Pioneer Protection Act — that a company that brings first-of-its-kind technology gets 10-year regulatory protection, tax incentive, and cannot be shut down by mere administrative letter without parliamentary hearing.
Lesson 2: We kill what could be Google, then we pay Google.
NCS could have been Google. Today Ghana pays millions of dollars to Google, Facebook, Amazon for services NCS was starting to build in 1993. We shut down our own, then we become consumers of foreigners who did the same thing we punished.
Lesson: When a Ghanaian builds something new, the state’s first response should not be “who gave you permission?” It should be “how do we help you scale?”
Lesson 3: The .gh lesson — Who owns Ghana’s digital assets?
Prof. Quaynor says .gh is supposed to be his but everybody wants to take it. That is still happening. http://Ghana.gov, Ghana Card database, Digitalization projects — who owns the IP? Is it the Ghanaian innovator or the ministry?
If we do not clarify IP for national domains and data, no Ghanaian will build for Ghana. They will build for US.
Lesson 4: Titles must follow contribution.
CNN called him Father of Internet in Africa because of verifiable contribution — he wired Africa, he trained engineers across the continent, he chaired ICANN Africa, he fought for African internet.
Today in Ghana, everybody is father, mother, owner, CEO of something on LinkedIn with no contribution. We must learn to verify, like US Embassy Fraud Prevention Unit verified 50 journalists and found only 2 real. Ghana must verify who really built what.
The Final Betrayal Is Still Happening
Prof. Quaynor says he feels betrayed but has forgiven. Ghana must not take forgiveness for granted.
He is still alive. He is still in Ghana. He still has knowledge that can help Ghana build true AI, true data centers, true cyber security.
But we are busy fighting over who owns .gh.
We are busy allowing TRIBE Culture Fest to operate from Accra Sports Stadium collecting $8,000 for visas.
We are busy suspending one man for $623,000.
We are not busy asking: How do we create the next NCS that can become Google?
Watch the full interview here again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bsXMFr-RhI by Kafui Dey
And after watching, ask yourself: If Prof. Quaynor had stayed in America in 1993 and not come back with 10 telephone lines, would Ghana have internet today? And if he came back today, would we still shut him down?
That is the lesson.
Alexander Afriyie Supervising, Ghanacrimereport.com and Ghanatalk.com