Maiden Aspire Business Academy Session to start this April

Stanbic Bank Incubator in partnership with Innohub Ghana Limited will launch a pre-incubation training and support for student owned enterprises next month. Dubbed the Aspire Business Academy, the training is scheduled to start on Monday April 8, 2021.

It is a 2-week masterclass designed for idea-stage student entrepreneurs is expected to help test the viability of their ideas, build strong business structures, and how they can target the right customers to ensure their businesses survive beyond campus.

According to Head Digital Transformation at Stanbic Bank, Patrick Gorge Quantson, the curriculum is filled with practical local case studies which explore real challenges that the entrepreneurs are likely to face.

“The program is designed to enable the student entrepreneurs have a better understanding of who they are as an individual and business owner, refine their business ideas and gain clarity to tackle the next steps and establish the right structures and processes for their businesses.

”SBIncubator recognizes the pivotal role universities play in nurturing entrepreneurial talents through their campus ecosystems; we are hopeful that the Stanbic Aspire Business Academy program will create the support system needed to encourage more sustainable and scalable student ventures and ultimately create more jobs”, he stated.

The 10 selected tertiary institutions to benefit from this program are University of Ghana, Cape Coast Technical University, Cape Coast University, Ho Technical University, University of Mines and Technology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Development Studies, Kumasi Technical University, Koforidua Technical University and Academic City University.

Partner academic institutions and participants after the 12-week program will reap a number of benefits including access to 300+ mentors/advisors across 48 disciplines/technical areas, campus entrepreneurship community, access to structured training programs and curriculum, internship opportunities with Stanbic Bank, Innohub and other partners, investment facilitation and due diligence simulations for the entrepreneurs etc.

This initiative is part of the Stanbic Business Incubator program launched in 2018 to support startups and SMEs through access to structured programs, access to finance and ready markets. The SBIncubator has to-date, provided support for over 7,288 entrepreneurs, 682 businesses and 1,639 women owned start-ups