Ghana Is On The Move

This Year Has Really Been Fabulous For Entrepreneurs In Ghana.

It's said that the best way to predict the future is to study the past. To that effect, I took out time to recap some of the major events in Ghana’s entrepreneurship space so far this year.

Starting off in January, U.K based Crowdfooding teamed up with Impact Hub Accra and other partners to create a knowledge sharing event named as Chocothon. The event connected stakeholders in the cocoa community through a two-day hackathon in which IT programmers and other parties involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, and project managers collaborated intensively on software innovation project.

In the same month, UKGCC partnered with founding member Hogan Lovells to host over 200 business leaders for the first West Africa Business Leaders Forum in Ghana which was held on the theme “Financing Infrastructure – Transport, Power, and Housing in Ghana.”

In February, Ghana’s tech elites, led by the UK-Ghana Chamber of Commerce, paid a visit to London to promote all that Ghana’s technology sector has to offer during the Tech In Ghana Conference London hosted by the team at AB2020.

In March, British Council Ghana brought delegates from 23 countries across Sub Saharan Africa and the UK together for the 1st Enterprise Africa Summit. The Summit, which coincided with Geeks On A Plane by 500 Startups and Lions at Africa, established the need to explore innovative pathways in connecting entrepreneurship to resilient development in Africa.

Still, in March, eighteen Austrian companies in the company of an official delegation from the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber participated in a Trade Mission organized by The Commercial Sections of the Austrian Embassy in Lagos and Casablanca.

In the early hours of April, the Solar Media Ltd and her partners brought Clean Energy Summit Africa to Accra, under the theme of accelerating clean energy access in Africa.

Also in the month of April, The Data Protection Commission hosted Data Controllers and Processors at its two-day Data Protection Conference. The event was organized to explore ways and means of safeguarding fundamental human rights through data protection.

In May, the first annual China Trade Week was launched in Ghana. The aim of the event was to further strengthen ties between China and Ghana.

The Demo Africa team came to Impact Hub for 2017 edition of Accra Innovation Tour in the same month of May.

And then, from 31 May to 2 June, the Ghana Mining and Energy Summit 2017 was held at Accra International Conference Centre.

Also in June, the President of Ghana led a delegation to attend the 2017 edition of Annual Ghana Summit – Oil, Gas, LNG, and Power. The event marked an important milestone in the country’s march towards the acquisition of critical skills, knowledge, and competencies that would enable Ghana to benefit from the oil and gas industry.

UK-Ghana Trade and Investment Forum 2017 was also held in June. A senior government delegation, attended the Forum to showcase the many investment opportunities that Ghana can offer international investors.

And then, Water Africa & West Africa Building and Construction Ghana 2017 brought stakeholders from Ghanaian government ministries, contractors, and consultants, engineers, architects, planners, suppliers, NGOs, investors, and developers together at Accra International Conference Centre.

In July, the 6th Innovation Prize for Africa was held in Accra. The event was a collaborative effort by African Innovation Foundation in collaboration with the government of Ghana and other key stakeholders.

Also in July, The Africa Open Data Conference created a space for tech industry, small businesses, journalists, civic tech, entrepreneurs, researchers, students, IT solution providers, banks, telecoms, insurance companies, NGOs, donor organizations, and local and national governments to connect and share advances in open data, lessons, and form new collaborations.

Hundreds of business-savvy Ghanaians across the diaspora attended the Ghana Diaspora Homecoming Summit held in the same month of July. The Ghana Diaspora Homecoming Summit stems from President Nana Akufo-Addo’s pledge to involve Ghanaians living abroad in the development of Ghana.

Furthermore, Akufo-Addo sets up a $100m fund for entrepreneurs and innovators through the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP).

In August, the British Council announced the first of its Social Thursday event series with a goal to assist social entrepreneurs with the needed skill sets to create impact and profit in their businesses.

The 7th annual CHALE WOTE Street Art Festival took place in Accra from August 14 to August 20, 2017, with over 200 Ghana-based and international artists building and exhibiting works in James Town and 15 venues across the city.

GIPC assembled the investment community at its 2017 Investment Summit also in August. The summit featured two days of high-level discussions on investment opportunities in key sectors, including financial services, technology, consumer goods and services, energy and agribusiness.

SFAN brought together about 100 upwardly mobile millennial entrepreneurs, digital marketing experts, and aspiring entrepreneurs at the 5th edition of Future Executives Business Breakfast Meeting in the same month of August.

In September, Social Media Week Ghana was held by Echo. The event brought together stakeholders to brainstorm on how to use social media as a tool to promote and develop businesses.

The Seedstars Africa team landed at Impact Hub Accra for this year’s edition of Seedstars Accra.

In October, the Fashion Ghana team hosted Accra Fashion Week 2017 on the theme of The Buyers Opportunity.

The Ministry of Communications held National Cyber Security Week 2017 with the aim to share ideas and best practices as well as raise awareness of cybersecurity and digital citizenship.

Also in October, the World Tourism Forum –Africa Summit was held at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra, bringing together about 50 foreign media houses, 10 African Ministers, as well as Ambassadors, Chief Executive Officers of Tourism from other countries, and other stakeholders in the sector.

The third annual Tony Elumelu Foundation hosted over 30 Ghanaian entrepreneurs in Lagos, Nigeria for Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Forum 2017.

In November, the Ministry of Communications Ghana and AB2020 hosted Tech in Ghana Conference, Accra with the aim to promote and encourage business and investment within the tech community.

Also in November, West Africa’s 6th Clean Energy & Environment Exhibition and Conference featured an official “Made in Germany” pavilion for the fourth successive time and for the second time a Start-up corner for Indigenous Ghanaian companies.

The Bloomberg Africa team brought Africa Business Media Innovators Conference to Accra from 12-14 November 2017. Focused on Africa, but with a global perspective, ABMI17 explored how best to maintain a flourishing media sector and how business and financial journalism can best contribute to sustainable development on the African continent.

Earlier this month, MTN held its fifth edition of the MTN Ghana apps challenge which was aimed at empowering the youth in developing innovative digital projects.

To climax the events of the year are three Presidential Visits to Impact Hub Accra and iSpace Foundation earlier this month. The President of France, Mr. Macron and Dutch Prime Minister, Mr. Rutte visited Impact Hub on December 1st while the German President, Mr. Steinmeier visited iSpace Foundation on December 12.

As any good farmer will tell you, when you see the pistils turning red and the leaves turning yellow, you know that harvest time is here. Likewise, when you look at the number and quality of events held in Ghana this year, the amount of investment that came into the startup ecosystem, and the number of international press that was generated by the business sector, you can only conclude that Ghana is on the move!