Ghanaian entrepreneur lobbies G8 to invest more in promising business ideas

A Ghanaian-born entrepreneur and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sproxil, Dr Ashifi Gogo, has advised members of the Great Eight of Nations (G8) to direct their aid agencies to invest more in budding business ideas and entrepreneurs in developing countries, explaining that such investments were needed to create meaningful impacts in the lives of the populace.

While noting the challenges that young entrepreneurs in developing countries, especially those in Ghana, often encounter in an attempt to access finance, Dr Gogo said the G8 needed to push more capital into areas where venture capital funds and other investors always shied away from.

'I urge the G8 to deliver a mandate to their aid agencies to expand into making more social impact investments, deploying capital to de-risk equity deals and invest in great ideas and entrepreneurs in locations that traditional venture capitalists aren't very familiar with yet,' Dr Gogo said at the G8 Summit on Impact Investment held in Britain last week

 The event, which was attended by some of the world's ­leading social impact investors, politicians, including Britain's Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron and some social entrepreneurs, was meant to discuss the future of impact investment and its recent success stories worldwide.

Impact investment is often done to generate both social and financial returns on the beneficiary company as well as on the lives of the people involved.

Dr Gogo, 32, was asked to share his experience on impact investments and social enterprises as a panel member at the function.

Explaining the rational of his comments at the summit to the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Sproxil CEO said using funds from G8 nations to invest in businesses rather than as aid would help nurture and grow businesses in a hitherto challenging environment.

'It is this access to financing that has helped Sproxil grow into a multinational social enterprise in just three years,' he said.

Sproxil, which Dr Gogo founded, specialises in designing softwares to counter counterfeit products using the mobile phone.

The company, with headquarters in USA, currently operates in five countries and is planning to launch in two additional countries, its CEO said.

By Maxwell Adombila Akalaare