AS part of its innovative solutions in addressing challenges facing the agriculture sector in Ghana, KOSMOS Energy Ghana, has invested $100,000 as seed funding to two Ghanaian business start-ups.
‘Trotro Tractor’ and ‘Ghalani’ became beneficiaries of the funds after their businesses were selected as overall winners at the maiden edition of an agribusiness-technology (AgriTech) competition organised by Kosmos Innovation Centre (KIC), the corporate social investment initiative of Kosmos Energy Ghana.
After nurturing their ideas through research and collaboration, and pitching them to a panel of expert judges, the winners received US$50,000 each as seed funding and technical assistance from the KIC.
Additionally, they would be mentored by the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) to help them turn their ideas into viable businesses.
The Vice-President and Country Manager of Kosmos Energy Ghana, Mr Joe Mensah, announcing the winners in Accra, mentioned that the initiative was borne out of a desire to make a transformational intervention in the economy.
He said the agricultural sector was the highest contributor to the country’s total value of production contributing 19 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“We will institutionalise the programme and do it every year and, with time, we will all see the impact,” Mr Mensah disclosed.
He urged those who did not win to retune their proposals and re-enter the competition.
‘TroTro Tractor’ and ‘Ghalani’ were selected from an original field of more than 100 young entrepreneurs from all over Ghana.
The competition began in April with the inaugural AgriTech Exchange, an interactive and informative brainstorming session, in which experts in agriculture, business, and technology gathered to define the most pressing challenges facing Ghana’s agriculture sector.
In a highly-competitive selection process that followed the event, the young entrepreneurs pitched preliminary ideas to a panel of judges drawn from the Ministry of Agriculture, academia, and private sector enterprises.
In all, forty-four entrepreneurs were selected to move forward to the second stage of the competition.
In May, the selected entrepreneurs – known in the programme as ‘AgriTechies’ – attended a series of lunch-and-learn programmes, aimed at deepening their understanding of the agricultural sector, studying the challenges identified in the AgriTech Exchange, and preparing for a 13-day field research tour.
The KIC-sponsored research tour then took the participants to five regions – Greater Accra, Volta, Eastern, Ashanti, and Brong-Ahafo – to interact directly with farmers and agribusinesses to test their assumptions and collect valuable input.
They formed 11 teams and continued to refine their ideas and formulate business proposals, which were pitched to the panel of expert judges in late June.
The entrepreneurs, who survived this pitch round, continued working on their business plans in advance of the final pitch in August that ultimately selected the winners.
Katie Sarro, the Managing Director of MEST said, “We’re thrilled to be working with Kosmos Energy on the Kosmos Innovation Center and AgriTech incubator. This mutually beneficial partnership where by each party brings their respective strengths to the table”.
She commended the KIC as a true and transformational corporate social investment programme, adding “we look forward to continuing to mentor and nurture these promising AgriTech startups through funding, incubation and technical support”.
The event was used to launch the second edition of KIC agribusiness-technology (AgriTech) competition.
The Finder