By 2025, Africa will have the largest youth population compared to all other continents combined. This data reveals the urgent need to create solutions around economic empowerment for these young people.

According to the ‘Global Entrepreneurship Monitor – Ghana Youth’ report, most young people in Ghana have set up their own businesses. However, 90% of entrepreneurs indicated that they had not received any support to help them.

Imperial College London (ICL), University of Ghana (UoG) and Impact Hub Accra (IHA) are partnering to address the problem of the disconnect between key stakeholders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Accra. The project’s goal is to understand the system’s status quo and explore how to improve links between stakeholders such as students, tech hubs, and universities.

Innovative students in Ghana are limited in opportunities and resources. They have to develop ideas to tackle issues impacting their local community. Academic and professional staff often already have full teaching and research schedules, and there are few opportunities to work with students to support their ideas. Innovation hubs lack close links with researchers in HEIs that can provide technical expertise, access to facilities and detailed analysis of local issues.

Specifically, the project will probe whether an entrepreneurship programme delivered digitally can improve students’ entrepreneurial skills development and build stronger links between relevant institutions.

The three partners each have extensive understanding and experiences of these issues. They are seeking to first develop an in-depth understanding of the situation and then co-create a female-focused entrepreneurship programme.   Creating diverse cross-cultural knowledge exchange between the UK and Ghana will drive innovation, avail learning and development opportunities for HEIs and partners in both regions, and enhance students’ employability and skills development.

Overall, tackling the issue of connectivity between ecosystem players in Accra, a problem faced by other African cities addresses the IAU’s aim of building the entrepreneurial capacity of African students and HEIs.

We wish this project well as we unite to grow and innovate Africa for youth employment opportunities

British Council – Innovation for African Universities Programme (IAU)

The British Council IAU programme is implemented by the Centre of Excellence (CoE) which is a partnership between the City University of London, the University of Nairobi and ChangeSchool UK.

The Programme comprises 24 partnerships of UK universities, SSA universities and entrepreneurial ecosystem organisations. The programme is running in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana & South Africa.

The CoE looks forward to working in partnership with The Connecting Accra project in Sub-Saharan Africa to exchange knowledge and ideas to strengthen the role of universities in entrepreneurship ecosystems.

To find out more: www.britishcouncil.org/education/he-science/news/entrepreneurship-projects-africa-have-been-announced

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