Introduction to Incubator Programs in Ghana

This post is the first in a series of post by me that will focus on Incubator programs in Ghana. In researching material I came across two incubator programs in Ghana that are of interest, The BusyIncubator and the Oguaa Business Incubator.

The BusyIncubator is run by BusyInternet Ghana, with support from infoDev, which is a consortium of public international development organizations and other partners, facilitated by a secretariat at the World Bank, which is a founder of and major donor to infoDev.

InfoDev’s Incubator Initiative received special funding from the Government of Japan. InfoDev supported BusyIncubator with $300,000 as part of grants for capacity building for existing Incubator programmes around the world.

The BusyIncubator provides a physical location, technical and business advisory services and assistance raising funds.

The BusyIncubator to date has successfully incubated 5 companies. The incubated companies vary in the services and products offered, but are technology oriented which is the focus of BusyIncubator.

EVENT PmG
EVENT PmG is into the sale of unique Invitation Cards for all occasions including Wedding & engagement, corporate functions, anniversary, party and graduation.

TOP UP BUSINESS SERVICES
A business offering the most comprehensive range of business services under one roof.

CHILDNET ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING CO. LTD.
Childnet electronic publishing is pioneering interactive educational software development on CD-ROMs in Ghana.

Runway 14 (www.runway14.com)
We are a company of creative professionals working innovatively with technology. Animators, Copywriters, Designers, Musicians, New Media Artists, Programmers, Television Producers and Video Jockeys – Conceptual urban philosophers

Both infoDev and the BusyInternet site indicate there are 6 tenant companies. I have been unable to verify whether these “tenant companies” are also incubated (I sent 2 emails, waiting for a reply). I however think the 6 companies are just companies using the premises of BusyInternet as their business location.

These are
Data Management International Inc. (www.dmi-inc.com)
EshopAfrica (www.eshopafrica.com)
Interface Technologies (www.interfaceghana.com)
Soft Internet Solutions (www.sis.gh)
Graphicolor, Ghana (www.graphicolorghana.com)

This incubator program seems to be destined for bigger things with the introduction of a virtual incubator, which aims to help other start-ups which cannot be physically housed on the premises of BusyInternet.

To end I wish to say I’ve decided to get up off my butt (Big as it is) and make time (OUCH!!) to visit the incubatees (CHALLENGE: See how many nouns, verbs etc you can form from ‘incubate’) and interview them for this blog.


DREAM BIG!

Links
(Click to Download a PDF about InfoDev)
www.infodev.org
www.busyinternet.com/incubator

Profile 0001 - Dickson Bandoh

Hello people, if you need an inspiration you should talk to this guy. What I say and plan, he's already practicing and he's pretty successful at what he does. This is the first profile. For all you who know him he's a changed man after Mfantsipim where i first met him.

I am Dickson kwadwo Bandoh, the second born son of an engineer father and a trader mother. I was born on the 9^th of April some moons ago. I am currently studying medicine at the school of medical science, KNUST. I had my secondary school education at Mfantsipim, the only school in the whole country where letters simply addressed by the name without any postal address would not be lost in the mail. I must confess that the school has had a significant impact on my outlook on and my current attitude to life.

Personal mission statement

I have made it a quest to be honest, hardworking and humble and strive for excellence in whatever I do.

Vision

I want to be part of the new movement of young Ghanaians who are making a difference in whatever area of endeavor they are currently engaged in. I want to make a difference in the health delivery system by offering excellent world class health services at an affordable cost to people in the deprived regions of the country and West Africa. I also want to be actively involved in the education of the youth of the nation especially in the areas of entrepreneurship and personal development.

Driving force

I live my life by a set of beliefs.

• That I am passing through this world only once and whatever I want to do, I must do regardless of other people’s opinions but my actions should be guided by my conscience and God.
• I have a key role to play in the development of the health sector in Ghana and the rest of the continent.
• I am capable of doing all things I can imagine, if I believe and work hard at it.
• Human beings are so important, I must make each person realize how special he/she is and bring a smile to their faces and hearts each day.

Interests

I love listening to all genres of music- but I prefer reggae and jazz. I enjoy reading; financial magazines, motivational books, current affairs magazines and health journals. For story books I enjoy those in the genre of Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum et al i.e. espionage and political thrillers. I don’t watch much TV and the few movies I watch are usually “action movies” and comedy movies too if I make the time. I actually go out of my way to avoid soap operas; why should I watch stories about the lives of a group of people I don’t know anyway? I love challenges in whatever form they appear- running a few extra meters each morning, finishing a book ahead of scheduled time or planning and executing a program or event.

Strengths

I believe my greatest strength is my ability to dream. I consider myself a fairly good listener and love taking calculated risks. I am training myself to be a diplomat- the kind of person who can relate well with anybody in any circumstance. It isn’t easy but I am working it out.

Weakness

My major weakness I fear is the perfectionist streak I seem to possess that sometimes makes me overdo my actions and overspend. I am quite shy sometimes bordering on the timid but I am working on that. I have a few other weaknesses that I am working hard to overcome.

Religion

I have battled with myself over the issue of my religious belief for a while. I find it difficult sometimes impossible even to accept that there is only one religion and only the adherents of that one religion will live a “better” life in the hereafter. I was born into a Catholic family and have received the basic sacraments but I have always believed, quite contrary to my catechism, that all religions are permitted by the creator of the universe so that each soul would have its own unique way of communicating with the creator. In effect, there is no right or wrong religion provided that the practices of its adherents do not violate the universal law of love (love your creator with all your heart and strength and your neighbor as yourself). I find gravely flawed for one group of people to lay claim to the creator of the universe as their own, no matter how well intentioned and sound their arguments may seem. I believe that the most important and true religion is not that instituted by humans but it is that ordained by the creator Himself and that is the religion of love- to love your neighbor as you love yourself and to love your Creator –God, Allah, and Onyame, Mawu etc with all your heart and with all your strength. That to me is the summary of all the religions we have in the world.

My over riding philosophy in life is that all things are possible if you believe and work towards it. No one can stop you except you. No one can play the role you are supposed to play on this earth but you.

The Project

I had a mail from Lizzy of i-genius and she wanted to know what this project was all about. We ended up putting this together and thought we let you all know what we want to do or achieve with this blog. Enjoy.

• Background information?

We are currently two friends in this project namely Nana Kwabena Owusu and Justin Sonaa Dakorah. Nana has a first degree (B Sc) in Civil Engineering an plans to major in Water supply, Environment or Highway. He is currently with the Department of Urban Roads in Tema.
I'm currently in my First clinical years in Kwame Nkrumah University Of Science And Technology-School of Medical Science. (KNUST-SMS). A long name though. Not really done with my plans but would like to be a Neurologist, Paediatrician or in OB/GYN. I have also been an active computer programmer and co-founder of BlackSoft Developers Ghana Ltd, a software development house specialized in multimedia programming.

• Goals of the project?

The goal to us is the driving force. What makes us go out there put some few blogs and hope we make an impact. The goal is actually solution based. Almost everyday i'm in an argument with friends and colleagues trying to let them know that there are opportunities. Now in most of those argument we lost or did not have facts. On the other hand there's is more than enough proof by the population that we have no chance of making it.
This project is to find the proof, profile those who made it indigenously and the realities in the field. Also we would try and explain certain Government policies and discuss some issues hoping to bring forth or get a homegrown solution from the public. It's not a project to defy every policy or regulation. In the nutshell, cuz i'm writing too much, the project is to

• identify the opportunities and the realities on the ground for the youth of Ghana
• instill in the Ghanaian youth a sense of patriotism
• organize seminars where necessary to deliver our findings
• organize other project targeted at designing or pursuing identified opportunities
• Identify and partner with Organizations that share our vision

A secondary goal will be to link Innovations Identified to be viable to Investors, Incubators or Venture Capital Orgs

• Project Targets?

• Primarily the youth.(Secondary and Tertiary Level of Education and the employed below 35)

• Subject of the blog?

This is a draft of subject areas we will tackle.

• Street Addressing
• Start-Ups
• Incubation Programs
• Marketing Ideas - Simple Feasibility Studies
  
• Biz Plans
• Interviews
• This Month In IT
• News Review - IT, Business
• Protecting Intellectual Property
• Profiling Young Achievers
• Responding to Comments

Best Regards,
Authors

I have arrived!

Hi Everyone, I'm the new author whom my co-author(who's ready to kick me out of this blog) Justin introduced. I actually tried posting for the first time using OperaMini but it somehow never happened. So this is my first blog. The last post The Good,The Bad and The Ugly, inspired me. So from tomorrow hopefully, we will Begin.
This is the Season of The Good,The Bad and the Ugly sides of trying entrepreneurial activities in Ghana.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - Cutthroat

Well we decided to start this blog in April. April has started and we are still in discussions as to what to post on the blog. While we were waiting i decided to scan the internet on similar works on Ghana and also in reality the success of this blog.
And i would say I've got good, bad and ugly news. So which one first, The Good I guess, just so you continue reading.

The Good news is that, we are not alone. at least we in our hundreds and counting. There are more ghanaians out there who believe, and that is positive. With the kind of energy building up and the kind of innovations these guys out there are undertaking, it will not take long to reach our goal. Everyone knows, and it's a fact that we missed the Fuedal, Rock and Industrial ages but to mention a few. But we are with the information age, the age of technology, the age of Information Technology. We met it, we saw it crawl and grow, we witnessed sky rocketing profit margins, we saw information technology turn companies around and made them fortune 500 worthy. Now with all the proof there is, i don't want to believe we are going to let it pass by us again. we need to take advantage of the "Age". Enough enough enough.

Now the downside. The bad news. From experience it's not easy, everyone talks about the fact that there are serious bottlenecks. For example, the youth in Ghana are not saying we want the Old guys out of their offices but they behave as such. When they see a potential person with talent, they see competition. Most of our lecturers were very bright, did powerful project works back in their time and we all have no idea what happened after. Lets ask ourselves, are we as bright and up to the task as we are supposed to have been trained for. This really is the bad side, that the students being produced from our university are frankly not up to the task. The few ones who did the learning end up 'elsewhere'. That makes what the few of us want to achieve very difficult. I propose that patriotism of some sort is thought in schools, that somehow they make us understand that we have a duty to perform, to make this place better for those coming and the next. Lets get our youth talking about Ghana than USA, UK, Australia, Europe and the like.

Now, The Ugly. The youth themselves see all this as impossible. They believe Ghana cannot make it. They don't see the Ghana we see in 10 years. I don't want to talk a lot about this ugly side cuz it discourages me. Their minds are set. They believe that no one can make it in Ghana unless the individual is of some family, political party, ethnic group or travels outside the Country. Sad thing is they have evidence, vivid ones indeed.
I think the blog can now begin.