MTN, GMIC commit GH¢838,400 to business incubation
MTN Ghana has partnered the Ghana Multimedia Incubator Centre (GMIC) to create a platform for young entrepreneurs to nurture their own ideas of creating businesses within communities.
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The project, valued at GH¢838,400, is to span for a period of two years, with MTN providing GH¢308,400 and the GIMC contributing the remaining GH¢75,000 for the business incubation programme.
The two entities have, subsequently, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to kick-start the project which would look at the selection and incubation of 10 innovative Information and Communication Technology (ICT) business ideas.
Business incubators are programmes designed to support the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services, developed and orchestrated by incubator management and offered in the incubator and through its network of contacts.
The Director of the GMIC, Mr Solomon Asante Dartey, speaking at the signing ceremony, said the GMIC assists startups and young businesses that have groundbreaking and innovative ICT ideas to mature into viable business ventures through the incubation programme.
He was, thus, grateful to MTN Ghana for their support, and called on other private sector players to also look in the direction of incubation and technology commercialisation and commit funds into researches and business development aimed at creating innovative solutions and services for the entire country.
“Let us encourage the creation of indigenous solutions for our problems and challenge our talented youth to be creative in thinking,” he said.
The Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane- Boamah, lauded the partnership between the two entities as a way of generating more decent jobs for people, especially the youth in the country.
He said the ceremony to sign the incubation support agreement between the Ghana Multimedia Incubator Centre (GMIC) and MTN is a landmark achievement in our determined journey of making Ghana an Information and Communication hub within the sub region of West Africa.
According to him, the uniqueness of business incubation was that it challenged the mind to think in a creative way, as well as provide these businesses the comfort of not having any difficulty with respect to challenges startups faced.
The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Mr Serame Taukobong, said the company was committed to developing entrepreneurs through the promotion of the growth of ICT.
The partnership is for an innovative competition among final year tertiary students with ICT background who would be selected from the various tertiary students in Ghana and the best ten would be nurtured afterwards.