American Metaverse Association

US Metaverse Association Official Report | April 2025

The US Metaverse Association is proud to honor Mr. Benjamin Osei, visionary technologist and educator from Ghana, with the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his trailblazing contributions to building Africa’s first continent-wide virtual education infrastructure powered by metaverse technologies.

As the chief architect of the African Virtual Education Network (AVEN), Mr. Osei has spent more than a decade working to ensure that children and youth across Sub-Saharan Africa—especially in rural, post-conflict, and low-resource regions—can access high-quality, immersive, and culturally relevant education via virtual platforms.

“Benjamin Osei is proof that infrastructure is not just about wires—it’s about vision, equity, and human potential,” said the Association’s President during the award ceremony. “He has built more than a network. He has built a movement.”

Through AVEN, Mr. Osei has led the design and deployment of low-bandwidth, mobile-first learning environments that combine XR (extended reality), AI tutors, and multilingual curriculum modules adapted to local needs. His work has touched over 3 million learners in 18 African countries and empowered more than 20,000 educators through training and co-creation programs.

A hallmark of Mr. Osei’s vision is localization-first design. From integrating Swahili and Twi into metaverse classroom interfaces to embedding indigenous knowledge and storytelling into lesson frameworks, his team’s work has brought African cultures and languages into the heart of virtual learning.

He has also established partnerships with the African Union’s Department of Education, Meta’s global connectivity labs, and the World Bank’s Digital Africa Initiative to strengthen technical capacity and ensure affordability. His policy advocacy has contributed to the inclusion of immersive education goals in several national digital strategies across the continent.

Mr. Osei is also a mentor to dozens of young African edtech innovators and serves as a founding board member of the Pan-African Forum on Immersive Learning (PAFIL).

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest honor conferred by the US Metaverse Association. It celebrates individuals whose enduring work has reshaped the future of the metaverse for public good. Mr. Osei’s commitment to digital inclusion, educational justice, and Afrocentric innovation exemplifies this spirit.

In his acceptance speech, Mr. Osei remarked: “The metaverse must not become the next digital divide—it must become the bridge. Every child, no matter their village, language, or device, deserves a future they can step into. This award belongs to all those who believed that Africa’s classrooms don’t need walls—they need possibility.”

Mr. Osei will join a featured leadership panel at the Global Metaverse Innovation Summit 2025, to be held this October in Palo Alto, California.