GHANA – MEST, a project of Meltwater Foundation, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, has announced the launch of the Startup Creation programme, aimed at supporting young entrepreneurs to build, launch and scale software technology-enabled ventures in Ghana.
Startup Creation will provide free training in entrepreneurship and startup development in response to growing demand for software entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial skills among young people in the country as well as provide the opportunity for participants to launch tech-enabled startups that solve local problems.
Over the course of 12 weeks, participants will undergo a series of subject-focused sprints and take part in workshops led by experienced facilitators as part of a curriculum designed to build their business acumen and technical skills as software entrepreneurs and assist them in launching early-stage startups by the end of the programme.
Participants will also receive access to mentorship, funding and other resources needed to develop them into tech founders.
The programme will be run under PRE-MEST, one of three new programmes, alongside MEST Express and MEST Scale, that MEST is currently running in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation through Young Africa Works, a 10-year strategy of the foundation to enable three million young people in Ghana to access dignified and fulfilling work.
“The programme gives them the support needed and walks them through the process to build their products and businesses and also get some initial traction.”
Olufemi Adewumi – Director, MEST
“The Pre-MEST Startup Creation programme is designed to equip young Africans who are passionate about starting tech businesses with the skills needed to succeed in this endeavour. The programme gives them the support needed and walks them through the process to build their products and businesses and also get some initial traction,” said Olufemi Adewumi, director of the training programme at MEST.
Founded in Ghana in 2008 via the Meltwater Foundation, MEST Africa was built on the idea that talent is everywhere, but “opportunity” is not.
The Pre-MEST project will target youth by partnering with local universities, existing tech hubs, and coding programs. By reaching entrepreneurs earlier than the MEST Training Program, the adapted MEST curriculum can be more widely distributed, increasing our reach exponentially.
With MEST Express, an abridged version of the MEST incubation model, MEST can reach more startups by condensing the incubation period along with incorporating key components of the MEST Training Program, to offer startups an accelerated and adapted model.
MEST Scale is the deepest of the three programs, designed for enterprises that are at the ‘scale stage’ with the intent to bring them to the next level.
The program will target small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who have sound operations, have reached break-even, and have core product(s) developed that are competing in the market to provide targeted, bespoke, and deep strategic, operational, and technical support. The objective is to position them for large-scale growth.
