Penplusbytes
Penplusbytes
Sector Portfolios
- Kusasa (Technology)
Focus Areas
- Technology and Digital Futures
- Human Rights
Cohort 05 (2026)
- West Africa
- Ghana
Penplusbytes is a civic technology organization founded in Ghana in 2001 that uses technology to strengthen democracy, civic participation, and responsible journalism across West Africa. Over more than two decades it has grown into one of the region's leading institutions in media, governance, and digital rights, with partnerships spanning the African Union and ECOWAS.
The organization builds tools including voter education apps, parliamentary monitoring platforms, and e-governance dashboards that help citizens engage with and hold accountable the institutions that govern them. Penplusbytes deploys AI-driven monitoring systems, fact-checking tools, and media literacy training to combat misinformation, co-designs programs with youth, women, and persons with disabilities to reach communities typically skipped by digital literacy efforts, and provides digital security training and alternative financing through its crowdfunding platform Yensomubi.org to support civil society organizations facing shrinking civic space.
Partner Impact
PUBLICATIONS
Leadership Highlight
Jeremiah Sam
Executive Director and Lead Strategist
Jerry Sam is the Executive Director and Lead Strategist of Penplusbytes, a Ghana-based civic-tech nonprofit at the intersection of technology, media, and democratic governance. With two decades of experience in programme management, digital innovation, and capacity development, Jerry leads a multidisciplinary team of software developers, programme officers, and digital communication specialists working to deploy technology in service of citizens and communities across Ghana and Africa.
Under his leadership, Penplusbytes has become a respected voice across the region on disinformation, digital resilience, climate information integrity, and social accountability. The organization works closely with civil society organisations, journalists, government agencies and communities to strengthen democratic resilience. Jerry has championed cross-border collaboration on election integrity and disinformation, convening stakeholders across West Africa and producing evidence-based tools and indices that inform policy and public discourse.
A passionate advocate for citizen-centred governance, he believes technology must serve as a bridge between people and power, making accountability accessible, information trustworthy, and civic participation genuinely inclusive. Jerry is rooted in the communities Penplusbytes serves and driven by a vision of an Africa where digital tools advance justice, not undermine it.delivering meaningful and lasting impact across Zimbabwe.
