Founder Scholarships Ghana

Key Stats

  • Duration

    01.07.2020 to 30.11.2020

  • Location

    West Africa

About the program

Founder scholarships provide in cooperation with Sparkassenstiftung financial support and mentoring for entrepreneurs allowing founders to fully concentrate their time and energy on their business venture. In this addition, we are specifically supporting startups who are highly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The monthly scholarship of up to 1.500 Euro supports founders for four (4) months and provides access to knowledge, mentors, networks, and peers. Thus, founders are able to focus and adapt their business models to the current situation and stay autonomous entrepreneurs with business growth and market presence.

Meet the Participants!

 

Victoria Agbai, Founder of Bubune Skincare

Coming from a humanities background, Victoria started her career at the Delegation der Deutschen Wirtschaft in Ghana (German Chamber of Commerce) as a project manager. After four years, she was selected out of 3,000 global applicants by the Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) for a scholarship in Germany, through which she got her Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) in International Management from the Nuertingen-Geislingen University of Applied Sciences. In March 2019, Victoria returned to Ghana to put her knowledge and plans into action. Hence, she founded her company, Bubune Skincare to produce skin-friendly products that are plant-based (mainly Shea) and could be used in any climate. Through Bubune, Victoria is also supporting the Ghanian women who work in different Shea producing areas with better job opportunities as well as empowering them with selling and negotiation skills to enhance their livelihoods.

Through enpact’s support, Bubune Skincare has: 

  • Received Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) approval for a new range of skincare products
  • Purchased two lotion filling machines
  • Acquired one full-time employee
  • Purchased shea from 40 shea processors who were affected by COVID-19 and the associated lockdown

 

Kofi Boahen, Founder of The African Exporter

After completing his undergraduate degree in Business Administration, Kofi Boahen headed the family school, Hamburg International School for two years. He began his entrepreneurial journey as a co-founder of a Marketing and Business Development consulting firm. After a few years, he joined IMANI Centre for Policy and Education as a policy analyst, where he co-authored several reports and articles that encompassed recommendations for the Government of Ghana to ratify the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union. After IMANI, Kofi Boahen worked with an export firm in the non-traditional export sector for about two years. This has encouraged and prepared him to kick off his entrepreneurial venture, The African Exporter – a step he took after building further experience in the logistics and transportation industry by working for a few months at a logistics firm founded by his friend. With The African Exporter, Kofi Boahen is aiming for building the ‘Alibaba of Africa’, as he states. Together with his team, Kofi is on a mission of diversifying Africa’s exports with a fanatical focus on non-traditional exports. They intend to harness the entrepreneurial capacity of Africa’s youthful population and direct it towards exports. This mission contributes to the fact that Africa is currently witnessing dedicated attention from its own people on utilizing their comparative advantages to drive economic empowerment.

Through enpact’s support, The African Exporter has:

  • Acquired three full-time employees plus and one part-timer
  • The customer database can access purchases
  • Affiliate membership with Global Shea Alliance
  • Approached the target revenue of 5,000USD

 

David Foli, Founder of Agromyx

David has been working in the food industry for the past 15 years. He specializes in R&D, food & beverage operations, supply chain management, and contract negotiation. What pushed him to establish Agromyx is how crops in his country bring out abundant healthy seasonal produce, which then leaves behind on farms, in markets, and restaurants a huge amount of unused waste; whereas these goods are already expensive when produced off-season. Through Agromyx, David is contributing to handling the post-harvest produce in Africa as well as tackling obesity and malnutrition by producing vitamins & mineral-rich foodstuff with zero-waste. To do so, his company focuses on processing the post-harvest produce of fresh cereal crops, thereby providing nutritious healthy products, which are preservative-free but even with extended shelf-life. With Agromyx, David Foli also aims to deliver innovative solutions for the elimination of post-harvest losses in the global food supply chain by building synergies between local agricultural economies and the global market place.

Through enpact’s support, Agromyx has: 

  • Financed 160 smallholder farmers affected by COVID-19 with funds.

 

Alex-Calvin Gbetie, Founder of Profish Ghana Limited

Alex is a software developer and designer who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and has seven years of experience in software development, digital marketing, and project management. Through ProFish Ghana Limited, he promotes food security by leveraging technology to transform the fisheries industry through working with the rural fisherfolk. This was sparked by a desire to transform the fisheries sector into a vibrant and modern technology-enabled space that provides IT solutions across the whole fishery value chain. Before founding Profish, Alex was eager to build his own experience in different business positions prior to transforming his idea and establishing this startup. His journey kicked off in 2013 when he joined – as tech support and community manager – Epistrophe CI, the French domain name and hosting company based in Cote d’Ivoire. Afterward, he became a digital manager, social strategist, and web developer at the same company, where he proposed websites and integrated software solutions to diverse organizations. He had also played there the role of the partnership lead before leaving in 2015. The year after, Alex joined Ict4Dev SA, an agri-tech promising startup in Cote d’Ivoire, as a project manager. Then in 2017, Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology selected him to be trained as a tech entrepreneur in Accra, besides taking part in the Kosmos Innovation Center AgriTech Challenge, where he co-founded his ProFish Ghana Limited.

Through enpact’s support, ProFish Ghana Limited has: 

  • Purchased 2 big ice-chests for storing fish products at sales events
  • Acquired 44 new clients
  • Generated revenue of GHS26,700
  • Sourced fish products from 15 small-holder farmers
  • Acquired one new staff member
  • Sales stand at two exhibitions and sales events

About Founder Scholarships Ghana

Benefits

  • 6.000 Euro over 4 months per team
  • Co-working space & administrative support
  • Mentoring
  • Be part of enpact network of 1,000+ startups, 300+ mentors and 50+ support organizations in 20+ countries

Criteria

  • Business/organization must be registered in Ghana
  • Minimum team size of 3 persons (including the founder/s)
  • 25 employees maximum on payroll
  • The application must be completed by a founder/legally authorized representative (eg. Managing Director)
  • The business/organization has been impacted severely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is constrained to operate further
  • Early stage, MVP
  • Revenue generating since 2019
  • Innovative and scalable business model or product, and/or have a social impact
  • Applicants who studied or worked in Germany have a higher chance of being selected

Timeline

  • Deadline – 19th July 2020, 23.59
  • Interviews – 22nd, 23rd July 2020
  • Selection – 27th July 2020
  • Kickoff – 3rd August 2020
  • Monthly workshop days
  • Weekly co-working and expert mentoring sessions

Application link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QCJ6DYB*

*Only complete applications will be considered.

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