In 2018, enpact developed a mentoring program to help the founders of local businesses in Ghana. Over the course of our first year in Ghana, we built a strong network of well-established entrepreneurs and influencers in the startup ecosystem who joined us as mentors and experts for the national mentoring program. The cohort consisted of 16 young founders who were able to take their ideas to the next stage and launch new businesses in tourism, real estate, education, food and other sectors.
The national mentoring program aimed to provide dedicated, focused support to younger, budding entrepreneurs on the local scale. We were joined by entrepreneurs and key startup ecosystem influencers that have become part of our network through our international mentoring program in West Africa and the various initiatives we’ve built in our first year of operations in Ghana.
16 young entrepreneurs from a diverse range of industries were selected to participate. Throughout the program, they experienced a journey that brought them closer together. Because, despite their different sectors, it was apparent from the get-go that entrepreneurs are facing similar challenges and can collaborate and learn from each other to overcome them. As with the international editions of our mentoring programs, the startup bootcamp and the 1-on-1 mentoring sessions were the core focus.
And so, 6 months of ideation and collaboration, two startup bootcamps, plenty of startup methodology workshops and hundreds of 1-on-1 mentoring sessions later, we created a new strong enpact community of striving entrepreneurs and mentors who still engage in collaboration, events, and knowledge exchange as they grow in their different industries.
Aside from the key connections, learnings and collaborations born from the program, a number of the entrepreneurs have made the breakthrough to launch new businesses in tourism, real estate, education, food and other sectors.