Officials of Kosmos displaying the award
The Kosmos Innovation Centre (KIC), has won this year’s Concordia P3 Impact award for its work investing in young entrepreneurs and small businesses who have big ideas to transform key sectors for Ghana’s economy.
Through its flagship innovation programme, the AgriTech Challenge, the KIC provides an annual cohort of around 100 Ghanaian youths with business training, mentorship, and market research tours. Over the course of the programme, KIC entrepreneurs form teams and build technology-based business concepts that tackle challenges across various agricultural value chains in Ghana.
Commenting on the award Mr. George Sarpong, Director of External Affairs at Kosmos Energy Ghana said: “Through the KIC programme we provide the training, mentoring and introductions to contacts that young Ghanaians need to create a business that transforms the agricultural sector.”
He said: “In just three years, the KIC has helped launch businesses that tackle challenges at every point in the agricultural value chain. Winning the P3 Impact awards is testament to all their success.”
“All we ask of participants in return is they have fire in their belly and a genuine desire to run an AgriTech business. “If that sounds like you, applications for the KIC AgriTech Challenge 2019 are now open. I would encourage any young person with an interest to put themselves forward,” he said.
Mr. Sarpong said one team that had found success from a previous KIC AgriTech Challenge was Trotro Tractor.
“The company provides a mobile platform that connects farmers who don’t have mechanised equipment of their own with local tractor operators in what has been billed as “Uber for tractors. TroTro Tractor currently has over 30,000 farmers on its database. They have also raised $252,500 grants from British Council and Alliance for Green Revolution Africa (AGRA). Their revenue is expected to be 10.9 million Ghana cedi ($2.5 million) by 2022,” it said.
Joe Mensah, Vice President and Country Manager at Kosmos Energy said, “The Kosmos Innovation Centre represents our steadfast commitment to investing in Ghana’s future. The KIC is distinctive in that it is turning out homegrown, commercial solutions to development challenges.”
“The Ghanaian start-ups emerging from this programme are tackling the most vexing issues facing agriculture today, from access to markets, to soil quality, to counterfeit chemicals. We are inspired every day by these young entrepreneurs and can’t wait to see what business opportunities they’ll find next,” he said.
The P3 Impact Award is itself a partnership between three renowned organisations: Concordia, a non-profit organisation dedicated to fostering, elevating, and sustaining cross-sector partnerships for social impact; the University of Virginia Darden School of Business; and the U.S. State Department.
By Times Reporter
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