TechCamp West Africa: Making Connections To Boost West Africa’s Entrepreneurs

Accra, February 6 – 8th: One hundred young social entrepreneurs from Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria and Togo will gather to engage in hands-on capacity building, and networking with the region's leading government, academic, civil society and business experts.

The public-private initiative has been spear-headed by the US Embassy Ghana and the GhanaThink Foundation to encourage cross border collaboration, inspire entrepreneurship, and promote increased trade across borders. The TechCamp West Africa program is themed “Entrepreneurship: Adapt, Empower and Measure.”

The TechCamp program will include an inspiration session followed by hands-on learning for each of the three sub-themes – Adapt, Empower, Measure. The “Adapt” panel will engage representatives from partners -- Microsoft, IBM and KPMG – in a discussion of their experiences in a changing social and economic landscape. The Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (SEED) will lead the “Adapt” hands-on learning session.

The “Empower” session will feature Patrick Awuah (Ashesi University), Nicole Amarteifio (An African City), and Sheku Kallon (PwC). Google will lead the participants through the “Measurement” inspiration and learning sessions, sharing how to get the most out of entrepreneurial efforts by constantly measuring the environment, finding opportunities and avoiding pitfalls.

2014 Mandela Fellows Regina Agyare and Yayra Adzofu will talk to the young entrepreneurs about the community service programs they have created -- TechNeedsGirls and a sanitation program at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital. These social entrepreneurship programs demonstrate how to grow business or social programs through community service.

Ambassador Gene Cretz, Honorable Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, and Leticia Browne of the Ghana Angel Investment Network will provide feedback as country teams pitch solutions to improve the entrepreneurship environments in their particular communities.

Vodafone Ghana will headline the Jam Sessions, which will entail small group problem-solving on a variety of themes ranging from agriculture to robotics, and from new technology to elections.

All are encouraged to engage in the TechCamp conversation on Twitter using #TechCampWA or #TechCamp and watch the live-stream at http://redirect.state.sbu/?url=https://www.youtube.com/user/USEmbassyGhana. Additional information may be found at www.techcampwestafrica.org.