100 West African entrepreneurs gather for TechCamp in Ghana

Approximately 100 young social entrepreneurs from Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria and Togo over the weekend gathered to engage in hands-on capacity building and networking with the region’s leading government, academic, civil society and business experts.

The initiative has been spearheaded by the US Embassy Ghana and the GhanaThink Foundation, and is aimed at encouraging cross border collaboration, inspiring entrepreneurship, and promoting increased trade across borders.

Themed “Entrepreneurship: Adapt, Empower and Measure,” the TechCamp programme included an inspiration session followed by hands-on learning for each of the three sub-themes.

2014 Mandela Fellows Regina Agyare and Yayra Adzofu spoke to the young entrepreneurs about the community service programmes they have created – TechNeedsGirls and a sanitation programme at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital – while Ambassador Gene Cretz, Dr Kwesi Botchwey and Leticia Browne of the Ghana Angel Investment Network (GAIN) provided feedback as country teams pitched solutions to improve the entrepreneurship environments in their particular communities.