Kosmos Innovation Center offers skills training, mentorship, and seed funding to help entrepreneurs turn their ideas into viable, self-sustaining businesses. The center’s programs are driven by local staff and private sector experts, resulting in a distinctive focus on commercial solutions and local knowledge. The center has been launched in Ghana since 2016 and has been helping to breathe new life into agriculture, transforming it into an engine of growth and job creation.
The center has also been launched in Mauritania since 2018 and is helping young, entrepreneurial Mauritanians to develop the skills to turn ideas for new products and services into reality. The center is also helping young business leaders in Senegal develop the technical skills needed to grow successful and sustainable businesses.
The Kosmos Innovation Centre (KIC) recently hosted a Team Building and Bonding Bootcamp for the AgriTech Challenge Pro cohort of 2024.
The AgriTech Challenge Pro is a programme that KIC and the Mastercard Foundation jointly organised. It reflects their shared commitment to helping young people become more employable and work-ready by guiding them towards respectable and rewarding careers in entrepreneurship.
The top 22 teams from the 2023 KIC AgriTech Challenge Classic and 20 exciting current companies are among this year’s participants. UG, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Cape Coast (UCC), Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU), Takoradi Technical University (TTU), Ho Technical University (HTU), Koforidua Technical University (KTU), SD Dombo University of Business & Integrated Development Studies (UBIDS), and University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) are the ten participating universities.
The intensive 5-month accelerator training programme, which aims to provide young entrepreneurs with the knowledge and abilities needed to create creative, scalable, and financially successful business solutions within the agriculture industry, begins with a team-building workshop. The goal of the AgriTech Challenge Pro is to foster the next generation of agripreneurs, transform the industry and create social impact, while also gaining economic empowerment. It does this by using innovation and technology as catalysts. Funding is provided to each participating team to aid with the development of their products and businesses. The successful teams will move on to KIC’s Incubation programme after the five months of training.
The AgriTech teams participated in exercises that emphasised the importance of discipline and resilience as core team abilities, while also fortifying interpersonal relationships. Acknowledging the critical role these qualities play in the startup path, the bootcamp centred on encouraging teamwork and innovation among the future entrepreneurs.
The goal of KIC’s multi-year collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation is to develop the next wave of youthful leaders and businesspeople in Ghana’s agriculture industry.
KIC is dedicated to advancing a robust agenda of change for youth via the agricultural entrepreneurship routes. Over 3,000 youth had benefited from the AgriTech Challenge programmes as of 2023.
KIC Executive Director Benjamin Gyan-Kesse gave a motivational speech to kick off this year’s AgriTech Challenge Pro training. He stressed the importance of KIC’s programme approach and highlighted how it helps young people develop an entrepreneurial attitude. Mr. Gyan-Kesse emphasised the value of giving participants the tools they need to not only envisage but also achieve their goals in order to promote a culture of sustainable corporate success.
