Returning to Ghana revealed the real-world impact of Arm-powered innovation

In my role as Chief Commercial Officer at Arm, I have the privilege of helping shape some of the world’s most advanced technologies. The work can feel far removed from my childhood in Ghana, but there are moments that bring those two worlds sharply together.

A few years ago, I travelled back to my country of birth with Arm’s Sustainability and Social Impact team where I visited a small rural health center – a clinic operating out of a few rooms in someone’s home. Standing there, watching frontline healthcare workers do everything they could with limited resources, the gap between where technology is built and where it’s most urgently needed couldn’t have been clearer.

But, in that moment, I also saw what’s possible when innovative, field-ready technology reaches the right people at the right time. In this instance, healthcare workers were using AI-powered Simprints’ biometric technology to ensure that every vaccine reached the right person at the right time, with fewer going to waste – helping health systems do more with limited budgets and stretched frontline staff.

Seeing Simprints’ technology in action

Across the world, over 850 million people lack formal identification. Without it you cannot access essential healthcare, open a bank account, or enroll in school. In healthcare, especially in low resource and remote settings like rural areas in Ghana, the implications are truly profound – records are lost, treatments interrupted, and children slip through the cracks at moments when care matters most. The lack of precision and verified identity at the point of vaccine delivery also compromises the quality and integrity of data captured, which can lead to mis-informed decision-making and undermine transparency and accountability.

The malaria vaccine represents one of the most important public health breakthroughs in decades, but only if children receive all four doses. Too often, paperwork gets lost, families move between clinics and parents may not remember which dose their child has received. Nearly 29 percent of children drop out between the third and fourth dose, leaving too many unprotected from disease while risking the vaccine’s effectiveness.

Watching the Simprints technology at work in a rural clinic in Ghana’s Eastern Region was inspiring. A low-cost, efficient Arm-powered mobile device running Simprints’ AI-enabled biometric ID platform – which uses machine learning (ML) to identify infants – a notoriously difficult biometric challenge due to rapidly changing facial features – and pull up the child’s immunization record instantly. The technology solution is also optimized for real-world constraints, like heat, dust, unreliable power, and intermittent connectivity.

Partnering for scalable, equitable health access

Since 2020, Arm has partnered with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Ghana Health Services, and Simprints to help bring digital identity and a more equitable delivery of healthcare services to rural communities across Ghana. Nearly 2,000 frontline health workers in Ghana have now been trained on Simprints’ biometric ID technology, and this is only the beginning.

What once took minutes of searching through paper logs now takes seconds. Vaccination errors drop dramatically. Children are traced more reliably. Vaccines reach the right child at the right time, with fewer doses going to waste. Meanwhile, at a national level, governments get a clearer view of coverage and can make better decisions about where to focus resources.

This is not abstract technology talk. This is real life-saving, high-impact technology deployment.

Why this work matters – personally and professionally

I’ve been involved in many extraordinary projects throughout my career, but this one is different. It touches the country of my birth, and brings together technology innovation and impact in a way that feels deeply meaningful.

Seeing Arm’s technology – something we architect, optimize, and engineer for billions of devices – being used to identify a child in a rural Ghanaian village so they don’t miss a critical malaria vaccine reminded me that the true measure of technology isn’t how powerful it is, but how useful it can be to the people who need it most.

Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare,the Presidential Advisor on Health in Ghana, had a simple but powerful message during my visit: technology must serve people, and be used to close gaps, not widen them. This philosophy deeply aligns with me personally and what we aim to do at Arm.

As a company, Arm is proud to have supported Simprints from its earliest days – providing engineering expertise, funding, technical mentorship, and ecosystem access. Today, the work is expanding in scope and impact, as Simprints continues to deliver innovative technology solutions that make healthcare more transparent, equitable and reliable.

Africa’s growing role in technology

Africa has great potential to not just benefit from the AI and digital transformation, but to define its future. In many ways, the continent is already helping to shape the next wave of technological innovation. Countries like Ghana have young, ambitious populations and governments that are increasingly focused on equipping future workforces with the skills needed for a digital world. 

Arm cannot solve these challenges alone, but we can play a vital enabling role. When governments define their digital ambitions, companies like Arm can help turn those visions into reality, equipping people with the tools and opportunities needed for upward mobility.

Technologies that deliver social impact

We recognize that technology doesn’t fix every challenge, but when used in the right context, it can be truly transformative. That’s why Arm’s social impact and innovation strategy focuses on partnerships that tackle global challenges in health, education and climate to extend the benefits of technologies and AI, reduce digital inequalities and drive lasting impact.

Together with Simprints, Gavi, Ghana Health Services, and others, we are committed to building and supporting solutions that make immunization programs reach every child, no matter where they live. Simprints has already reduced ID errors, improved patient tracking, and streamlined the work of community health workers – but this is just the start.

As someone who was born in Ghana, it fills me with pride. As someone who has been working in technology throughout their career, it fills me with renewed purpose, because when technology is accessible, intelligent, and deployed responsibly, it doesn’t just scale, it lifts entire communities.