The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NEIP, Mr John Kumah made the revelation when he spoke on the government’s role in building the right ecosystem for start-ups and early-stage businesses in the country at the Mobile Business Clinic (MBC) Africa Start-Up Investor conference held on October 19 at the Alisa Hotel in Accra.

“The government has released a $10 million seed capital which can be accessed from November through the NEIP and although this is still emphasising on the youth, we want to remove the age limit and focus on the idea of innovation and entrepreneurship so that irrespective of your age, as long as you have a business idea to develop into an enterprise, the government must be in a position to support that vision”, he said.

He further used the platform to discuss the various modules under the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan, explaining that it was an integrated programme to empower start ups through incubation programmes, funding and provide assistance for young businesses in their formative years.

The NEIP is a flagship policy initiative of the government with the primary objective of providing an integrated national support for start-ups and small businesses.

Entrepreneurs hub

The event, organised by MBC in collaboration with the Ambassador of the Netherlands to Ghana, Mr Ron Strikker, brought together startups/SMEs, investors, business partners and government policymakers to provide a common platform for entrepreneurs to dialogue and find solutions to support the startup ecosystem in the country.

The Executive Director of MBC Africa, Ms Tenemba Anna Samake who chaired the event explained that the conference was to help entrepreneurs to secure investments for their businesses and to generate deal flow for investors.

“Although the ecosystem in Ghana is made up of an increasing number of accelerators and incubators, investors are still having difficulties in finding good pipeline deals. We want to facilitate the communication between all stakeholders in the ecosystem, including the government to build sustainable models for start-up and early-stage businesses,” she said.

Pitch for capital

The event also highlighted businesses of some young entrepreneurs who made pitches before potential investors and a panel of judges to attract funding to expand their businesses. Each startup was allocated five minutes within which they were expected to convince the investors and panel of judges to secure the needed capital to further develop their businesses.

The startups that engaged in the pitching process included Ghana compares, Groital and Kente master. The rest were Senam foods and Caris juice among others.

Speaking to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS on the sidelines of the conference, the CEO of Mirepa, Mr Samuel Yeboah, who was a judge at the event, said it was not easy to determine the potential of a business within the five minutes allocated each startup to present its idea.

“Sometimes it took months of extensive research before an investor can be convinced to put their money in an upcoming business,” he said.

He explained that the judges were looking out for some key factors to determine which proposition was a viable one.

“The team which is managing the business must have very strong marketing experience and be able to connect to their target market and also the social impact the business would have, that is the number of people the business would take out of unemployment and the difference it will make to society”.

He further stressed that the business proposition module of the startup must be clear and distinct to convince the judges or any other person to invest in the startup. — GB