30 start-ups have been given the opportunity to pitch their ideas to receive funds from the Mastercard Foundation Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative in Kumasi.

This follows a successful entrepreneurial training in sustainable business start-ups for four hundred students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

15 prospective entrepreneurs will get the chance to access a $150,000 seed fund.

The 3-day pitching event is spearheaded by the Health Entrepreneurship pillar of the Collaborative led by Prof. Wilberforce Owusu-Ansah.

The Collaborative will notify all successful entrepreneurs in January.

Prof. Owusu-Ansah added: “To those who will not get the seed money the Mastercard foundation will find other means to support them so their entrepreneurship dreams will not get killed,” he said.

The Health Entrepreneurship pillar is one of the three pillars of the Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative.

The pillar aims to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and culture that supports entrepreneurs to create meaningful innovations and employment opportunities in the health sector. Through the interventions, promising entrepreneurs will be nurtured to build resilient health ventures.

The objectives of the Mastercard Foundation Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative are to Build and strengthen the capacity of healthcare students and professionals to meet the growing demand for Primary Health Care (PHC) in the health sector; enable students to acquire advanced skills in Africa across a broad range of disciplines critical for sustainable health sector growth and transformation; Optimize entrepreneurial ecosystems in and through universities in Africa to launch and scale health start-ups to create jobs; Develop a dynamic, sustainable, long-term network of leading African universities, alumni, government agencies, health care start-ups, and private sector partners working together to create dignified and fulfilling jobs across health ecosystems.

The project will further develop a dynamic, sustainable, long-term network of leading African universities, alumni and government agencies, healthcare start-ups, and private sector partners working together to create dignified and fulfilling jobs across health ecosystems in the next ten years.

KNUST is one of the eight partners of the Higher Education Collaborative in Health with the aim to contribute to all three pillars of the health strategy: Health Employment, Health Entrepreneurship, and Health Ecosystems.