Annual Pre-harvest conference aligns with Kosmos’ vision of solving challenges in the agric sector - George Sarpong

Kosmos Energy’s Corporate Affairs Director, George Sarpong, has said that the forthcoming Annual Pre-harvest Conference and Exhibition aligns with the global oil giant’s vision for Ghana’s agriculture sector.

Mr. Sarpong made this revelation in a response to a set of questions posed to him at a recent media interaction in Accra to announce the forthcoming Pre-Harvest event taking place in Tamale at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium from 25th to 27th September 2019.

The Corporate Affairs boss of the global oil giant said that, against the background of the fact that Kosmos’ social investment programme, under their ongoing Kosmos Innovation Centre, currently focuses on agriculture, they see the Pre-harvest event as the right forum to deploy the expertise of the young entrepreneurs their programme has groomed.

“In 2016, we created the Kosmos Innovation Center our flagship social investment programme. This programme allows us to invest in young entrepreneurs and small businesses who are interested in seeing Ghana develop. We empower entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into viable, self-sustaining businesses and we work alongside promising small businesses to help them scale and reach their full potential. With the programme currently focused on Agriculture,” Mr. Sarpong explained, “Kosmos Energy sees the Pre-harvest event as a laudable project and aligned with our vision of solving challenges within the sector through collaboration.”

As a sponsor of the Pre-harvest, Kosmos Energy is planning to play a visible role within the event’s programme with the aim of maximizing their sponsorship objective and enriching the experience of the participants.

“Since its inception in 2016, the Kosmos Innovation Center has created fourteen innovative start-up businesses providing solutions to key challenges within the agricultural value chain,” Mr. Sarpong further explained, “Given the array of agribusiness companies participating in this year’s event, we expect to use this platform to provide exposure for the 14 businesses created over the past three years within the space to take advantage of business to business collaboration to acquire new customer base; create opportunity for expansion; network and share ideas to promote innovation in agriculture.”

Kosmos Energy shall be making presentations on topics including: “How will Ghana’s Agric Sector look like in 2023? What collective role can stakeholders play to change the face of the Agricultural sector with a focus on input, production, processing, finance, branding, packaging and market accessibility, What Technological Innovations in Agriculture can attract the Modern Youth? How do we breed the next generation of Agricultural Entrepreneurs? and Branding for Commercial Impact’’.

According to the global oil giant who started operations in Ghana since 2004, with their presentation, they expect to create a wider discussion about agriculture, based on the chosen topics for discussion; touch on technology and innovation in agriculture; create a collaboration with sponsors, and agribusiness and exhibitors; and share insights about the Kosmos Innovation Center programme “to expose young generation to consider agriculture as a career.”

Mr. George Sarpong said that being part of the Kosmos sessions, participants would have the opportunity to network and interact with sponsors, investors, exhibitors, and understand opportunities and innovations within the value chain.

Elaborating Further, the Corporate Affairs Director said: “We acknowledge the unattained opportunities that stand before us in the agriculture sector and want to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit within the youth and Ghanaians in general to achieve those possibilities.”

Kosmos is a full-cycle deep-water independent oil and gas exploration and production company focused on the Atlantic Margins. Their key assets include production offshore Ghana, Equatorial Guinea and U.S. Gulf of Mexico, as well as a world-class gas development offshore Mauritania and Senegal. The company that first hit oil in Ghana, in commercial quantity, also maintains a sustainable exploration program balanced between proven basin infrastructure-led exploration (Equatorial Guinea and U.S. Gulf of Mexico), emerging basins (Mauritania, Senegal and Suriname) and frontier basins (Cote d'Ivoire, Namibia and Sao Tome and Principe).

At the Pre-Harvest Conference and Exhibition event which will take place at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium, Tamale, from the 25th to 27th September, Kosmos will be showcasing twelve of the companies created through the Kosmos Innovation Center programme. The companies will exhibit their products at the Kosmos Innovation Center Pavilion. The twelve companies come with amazing innovative services guaranteed to revolutionise how things are done, especially information acquisition, in Ghana’s agricultural sector.