Stay Curious: Investing in Ghana’s Next Generation of Innovators

Artificial Intelligence is changing how people learn, work, create and do business. For young people preparing for the future, understanding how to use AI is becoming increasingly important. For Peter Gbedemah, however, young people should not simply watch AI transform the world around them. They should understand it, experiment with it and learn how to use it to create opportunities.

“AI isn't something that's happening around them. It's something that they have control over, ” Peter says. “And they can learn about it, gain confidence in it, gain curiosity about it… and ultimately use AI as a tool to improve their abilities and their opportunities.” This belief is at the heart of his support for the integration of Artificial Intelligence into JA Ghana’s Company Programme.

Peter has supported Junior Achievement for more than 15 years at the Pan-African, global, and Ghana levels. His commitment is driven by a belief that preparing young people for commercial life is an important part of preparing them for the future.

The JA Company Programme gives students the opportunity to experience entrepreneurship in a practical way. Over 15 weeks, students develop business ideas, create commercial plans and experience the realities of building and presenting a business.

Businesses are increasingly using AI to make processes smarter, faster and more productive while creating opportunities for greater innovation and creativity. Peter believes young people should have the opportunity to understand these tools and, importantly, learn how they can be applied in real commercial situations.

“It’s important that the students and the young people are able to see those tools and how those AI tools can be applied in commercial situations, ” he explains. This thinking is reflected in the theme for the 2026 National Business Pitch Competition, “Augmenting Innovation. ” The theme challenges students to explore how emerging technologies can strengthen existing ideas, products and processes and help them create better solutions to real-world challenges.

For Peter, the goal is not simply to teach young people about AI. It is to encourage them to become curious about what the technology can do.

He believes experimentation is an important part of learning. Not every attempt will produce the expected result, but every result can provide an opportunity to learn and improve. “There’s no such thing as a bad outcome with AI, ” he says. “It’s only an outcome that they may not have hoped for and that they can learn to improve for the future.”

This mindset is particularly relevant to entrepreneurship, where experimentation, adaptability and learning from challenges are essential. Peter hopes that exposing young people to AI through entrepreneurship can contribute to the development of “a whole generation of new, successful, innovative entrepreneurs and business people” in Ghana.

Peter believes Ghana needs two important things to ensure young people can take advantage of AI: training and success stories. Young people need opportunities to learn about AI and understand how it can be used in business and entrepreneurship. At the same time, Ghana needs to highlight businesses and entrepreneurs that are successfully using AI to become more innovative, productive and efficient.

“It’s about training, and then it’s about showing a roadmap of how success can look in the future by adopting AI, ” he says. Through the JA Company Programme and NBPC 2026, JA Ghana is creating an environment where young people can begin that journey, combining creativity, entrepreneurship and technology to develop solutions for the future.

As students prepare to take the stage at the National Business Pitch Competition, Peter’s message goes beyond winning. He encourages participants to put their best into the experience, remain curious, and value the knowledge they gain throughout the programme. “Whatever you learn here throughout this program will stay with you throughout the rest of your life.”

His advice is simple: “Stay curious about AI. Life is a continuous learning experiment.”

For JA Ghana, the integration of AI into the Company Programme is about preparing young people not only for the jobs of tomorrow, but also for the opportunity to become creators, entrepreneurs and innovators in an increasingly technology-driven economy.

Stay curious. Experiment. Learn. Innovate.