Ghana Tech Lab has partnered Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works to offer local solutions US$10,000 to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ghana Tech Lab incubator is a joint venture between Innohub Ghana and Kumasi Hive under the E-Transform Project of Ghana’s Ministry of Communications.
It has an existing partnership with Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works programme to upskill young Ghanaians, and has now extended that to launch the SLI-COVID-19 Challenge.
The aim of the challenge is to support and scale-up innovative solutions to stop the spread of the pandemic, with selected local entrepreneurs standing the chance of being awarded up to US$10,000 to support their work in tackling COVID-19.
It received a total of 199 applications from Ghana and a host of other countries, with 15 short-listed applicants then submitting an online pitch for further review and selection. After the final screening, six local innovations were selected for the programme.
The SLI-COVID-19 Challenge will run until next month, with the six participants receiving daily online coaching for the duration of the process. They will also receive technical and business mentorship to support them with product development in preparation for their product implementation.
Finalists will present their contributions in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic at an online product presentation session in May, with all of them eligible for grants of up to US$10,000 each to help scale their innovations and make them accessible to the market.
