Support for agribusiness entrepreneurship vital – Kosmos Energy boss
The Vice-President and Country Manager of Kosmos Energy Ghana, Mr Joe Mensah, has described as timely the current corporate support for agribusiness entrepreneurship and vocational training designed for young energetic youth, farmers to form agribusiness start-ups and small businesses.
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Speaking at a three-day Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Bootcamp organised by Diaspora Angel Investment Network (DAIN Network) with support from Kosmos Energy, he said the initiative had come at the right time to give the needed boost to agricultural development in the country.
It was, therefore, important for all to rally round it and encourage the youth to take advantage of opportunities to develop the agricultural sector.
The DAIN Network focuses on agribusiness entrepreneurship training for youth, start-ups, small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) and co-operatives in the agribusiness. It utilises the skills of professionals in the Diaspora to provide mentorship and technical assistance.
The participants in the three-day camp were provided the platform to gain a better understanding of how to scale a venture that makes sense for the local and global market and also learn how to partner and integrate into a multinational’s supply chain.
They were also helped in how to acquire tools and the framework to identify opportunities for product and market fit: target market, market segmentation, and competitive analysis as well as what investors look for before they invest in a business.
Mr Mensah said “the Bootcamp aligns well with our Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC) programme, which seeks to Invest in Ghana’s future, one entrepreneur at a time.”
The KIC, he explained, was an exciting new social investment programme that was arguably the most important corporate effort in the history of Kosmos Energy in the country.
“The KIC represents the same contrarian thinking and entrepreneurial spirit that helped us get where we are today, except this time we play the role of an angel investor who is ready to support an entrepreneur who shows an exceptional desire to succeed; and that success translates into solving some of Ghana’s most pressing developmental challenges,” he said.
He said at present the first challenge KIC is undertaking is focusing on the nexus between ICT innovation and agriculture with the objective of inspiring budding entrepreneurs to use technology to transform Ghana’s agricultural sector.
“We launched the KIC programme in March 2016 this year with the integrative approach, which we are using collaboration, incubation and acceleration all at the same time to create a systemic change as an overall impact for the country.
“It involves activities that target the entire value chain - from innovation challenges that stimulate new ideas (exploration); to funding expansion of existing commercial enterprises (production).
He affirms Komos Energy’s commitment to the project to the fact that since March, it had had carried out a number of activities which had brought in young entrepreneurs with ICT and agribusiness background to participate in our Agritech challenge.
The Kosmos Energy collaboration as lead sponsors of this Bootcamp underlines the value it attaches to the agriculture sector as an important catalyst to boosting the country economy through youth development and job creation.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Alhaji Limuna Mohammed Muniru, in a speech read on his behalf, commended Kosmos Energy and DAIN Network for the initiatives aimed at addressing challenges facing the agriculture sector.
He said the government would always be in support of initiatives that supported the growth of the country’s agriculture sector.