Most “best apps in Ghana” lists are written by people who have never queued at an ECG office. This one is ordered by how much of your week each app saves.
Nothing here needs a Ghanaian bank account except where it says so. Almost everything needs a Ghanaian phone number, so get a SIM first.
Install these on day one
| What | Why it comes first |
|---|---|
| Your network’s app | MTN, Telecel or AT. Buys data without a voucher, and shows what you have actually used |
| Your mobile money app | MoMo is how Ghana pays. The app is pleasanter than USSD; the USSD code is what works when the app will not |
| GhanaPostGPS | Every form, delivery and repair visit will ask for your digital address |
| A ride-hailing app | Uber, Bolt or Yango. One is not enough; prices differ by time of day |
| Not optional. It is how businesses, landlords, schools and artisans communicate here |
— Getting a digital address — Mobile money
WhatsApp is the real operating system
A plumber, a school, a bank’s relationship manager and a furniture shop will all prefer WhatsApp to email or a phone call. A business without a WhatsApp number in Accra is a business that is hard to reach.
Money
Covered properly in its own guide, because there is a lot of it and some of it loses people money.
Getting around and getting things delivered
Ride-hailing, okada, dispatch riders and food delivery, including what the apps do not tell you about pricing and safety.
Ride-hailing and delivery apps
Utilities and the house
- ECG Power App — buy prepaid credit without finding a vendor. The single most useful utility app in the country, and the one people install after their first 2am blackout with a dead meter. — Electricity and dumsor
- Your water provider’s channel. Ghana Water bills and payments run through its own service and through the mobile money menus. — Water in Accra
- A generator or inverter monitor, if you have one. Knowing the battery state before the power cuts is worth the trouble of setting up.
Government and paperwork
Government services increasingly have an app or a portal, and they range from genuinely good to a web page in a wrapper.
- Ghana.gov is the payment platform a great many public fees now go through. If a service tells you to pay elsewhere, ask why.
- The passport, DVLA and NIA services each have their own online step. — Government paperwork
Search results are not the official app
Fake government and bank apps appear regularly. Reach an official app from the organisation’s own website or a link it sent you, check the developer name, and be suspicious of one with few downloads and glowing reviews all posted the same week.
Shopping
Jumia, Melcom’s online store, Jiji and Tonaton for second-hand, and a very large amount of commerce that happens entirely on Instagram and WhatsApp.
Online shopping in Ghana Where to shop in Accra
Health
- A pharmacy or telemedicine service for a consultation without the traffic. Several operate in Accra and quality varies. — Finding a doctor
- NHIS renewal runs through a short code rather than an app, which catches people out. — NHIS
Getting a Ghanaian app store account
Some apps are region-locked to Ghana, and some Ghanaian apps are missing from a foreign store account. If an app you were told about does not appear, that is usually why rather than the app having died.
What to be careful about
- Permissions. A torch app does not need your contacts. A loan app that demands your contact list intends to call your family if you fall behind — that is the business model, not a bug.
- Storage and data. Most of these apps have a lite version or a web version. On a metered bundle that matters.
- Battery. Ride-hailing and delivery apps are the fastest way to flatten a phone before you need it to pay for something.