Seventy start-ups in Ghana are receiving support in digital innovations to enhance their opportunities to gain access to the African market.

The opportunity provided by the African Continental Free Trade Area will give entrepreneurs access to 1.3 billion people across the continent.

The European Union-funded AfriConEU initiative is empowering local entrepreneurs to tap into the market.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a development instrument that provides an opportunity for micro, small and medium enterprises to export their products to other African countries.

This agreement exposes entrepreneurs to a broader and deeper economic integration across the continent as well as attract investment.

For Sherif Ghali of the Ghana Chamber of Young Entrepreneurs, this provides entrepreneurs an opportunity to access a wider market.

“The African Continental Free Trade Area will play a key role in supporting start-ups and young people in Ghana.

“It is opening a market of over 1.3 billion people so imagine you have a market of a bout Kumasi size and now you have a market of about Ghana size,” he said.

The AfriConEU project empowers digital innovation hubs to catalyse digital entrepreneurship across Africa.

The Ghana Bootcamp of the initiative exposed young entrepreneurs to avenues in unlocking their economic potentials by leveraging the AfCFTA platform.

“This bootcamp is the last of the 4 bootcamps under the AfriConEU project which is funded by the EU. The earlier bootcamps took place at Kampala, Dar es Salem and Abuja.

“For the next three days, local entrepreneursand the youth from Kumasi will build their capacities on how they can become better,” said Sherif Ghali.

Chief of Atwima Wioso, Nana Kwakwa Bene Ababio II, spoke on the challenges entrepreneurs face in entering the single African market

“Many small and medium enterprises in the region lack relevant information on products entry requirements and process as well as procedures to access the single market,” he observed. 

The young entrepreneurs are accessing knowledge and skills in incorporating technology into their business.

Co-founder of the hapaSpace Innovation Hub, Gideon Brefo said, “We are empowering these young ones to take advantage of digital transformation to solve the problems around us. At the end of the 3-day programme, some of the participants would have ideas that ready to integrate technology into them”.

The AfriConEU Networking Academy is enabling African digital innovation hubs to best serve their local industry.