BBT program: ICC Ghana to establish centres of entrepreneurship to support start-ups

The Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce Ghana, Emmanuel Doni-Kwame has revealed that within the newly launched “For Better Business Together” program, the facilitators of the initiative will establish ICC Africa Centers of Entrepreneurship.

According to him, the ICC Centre for Entrepreneurship will serve as a flagship initiative of the 4BBT program, being piloted in Ghana as the first African beneficiary country, to prepare and mobilize the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Emmanuel Doni Kwame, said these centres would help develop skills of young people who face uncertainty in the job market, but have high potential in innovation and business.

“We want to build their capacities by running very simple programs. ICC has an academy in Singapore where they can study and get free tuition on how to go international, for example,” The ICC Ghana Boss explained.

He said the Centres for Entrepreneurship would not only serve as avenues for capacity building for young entrepreneurs, but it would be an avenue that would help catalyse deeper collaborations with investment companies, chambers of commerce and technology partners.

The Secretary General of the ICC Ghana, said the Centres will also support projects on a global scale and connect local markets with small, medium and large-sized businesses from around the world.

“There is an arrangement for those who develop apps or IT solutions, with Silicon Valley to be sponsored to Silicon Valley for a period through the Mind the Bridge program,” Mr. Doni-Kwame revealed.

He said it is noteworthy for the general public to know that the 4BBT is very keen on the United Nations 2030 agenda, thus, priority would be given to innovations that reflect or enhances the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals.

“The entire project will be looking at SDG related investments. For example, green issues, climate change. We want to find solutions to our problems, globally. These challenges present opportunities and people need to think outside the box which would end up creating a better world for us all,”.

He revealed that, the centres may begin in the tertiary setups in the country and expand to the commercial areas, to systematically encompass all prospective participants.

While stating these objectives of his organisation and co-facilitators of the 4BBT project, Mr. Doni Kwame indicated that these establishments may take a while to fully commence as the 4BBT is taking gradual steps to incorporate all necessary components for its success.

“The program itself has been launched, but some of the individual interventions within it may take off early next year but at least the pilot will be running,” he disclosed.

However, the Secretary General of ICC Ghana disclosed that on 30th October, 2020, there is going to be a virtual match-making event for young Ghanaian entrepreneurs with their counterparts in Japan under the “For Better Business Together (4BBT)” program.

The “For Better Business Together” program is an initiative borne from the collaboration between the Ministry of Business Development in Ghana, the International Chamber of Commerce and its Ghana Office, the Business for Peace Foundation and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

It is intended to ensure improvement in the cooperation between public sector and private sector towards enhancing sustainability of businesses.