The collaboration is set to drive innovation in Agrifood & Water Technologies enable West Africa is launching on March 5th in Accra.

February 18, 2019 - SmartHectar & enpact are launching enable West Africa, Innovation Hub for Agrifood & Water Technologies. On March 5th, 2019 at Hotel Golden Tulip Accra, Ghana they will host a kickoff event bringing together the leading ecosystem figures: startups, investors, corporate companies and policymakers. The event will explore the huge potential of startups in the region and the benefits of collaboration between corporates and startups, as well as within the entire tech ecosystem.

The event will feature a dozen of most promising startups in AgriFood and WaterTech that will pitch their innovations giving a taste of the trends and new business opportunities in the region. In addition, startups will present themselves in a special marketplace in front of the leading figures from the industry, while the experienced corporates will discuss lessons of working with startups and why collaboration is a win-win strategy.

Keynote speakers include: John Kumah of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan, Farmer Anthony Morrison of Chamber for Agribusiness Ghana, dr. Hamed Beheshti of the award-winning startup Boreal Light, and Kay Hoffman of WILO, one of the world's leading manufacturers of pumps and pump systems for the building technology, water, and industrial sectors. WILO SE is the main sponsor of enable West Africa. enable will begin its programming with the Corporate Innovation Challenge (May 2019) that provides accessible conditions for established businesses to engage in collaboration with startups.

The first participants and the program details will be announced during the kickoff event. With this open innovation format enable wants to encourage young entrepreneurs and innovators from West Africa to collaborate with the experienced businesses on the innovative solutions for agriculture and water sectors. Later this year, enable will launch an acceleration program before opening a physical innovation hub in 2020. The goal of enable West Africa is to foster economic growth in the region by building sustainable innovative businesses in these sectors that create new jobs.

Contact: Stefan Godskesen

Director sub-Saharan Africa, enpact

E. sg@startup-mentoring.org

M. +233 50 247 5936

SmartHectar Innovation GmbH is a Berlin-based international hub for corporate-startup collaboration in agrifood and water technologies. Combining the experience of established companies with the agility of startups SmartHectar provides scouting services and innovation programs. enpact e.V. is a non-profit organization with the aim of strengthening economic relations between young entrepreneurs from the startup scenes of the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. In addition to that enpact supports local entrepreneurial ecosystems by creating entrepreneur spaces for startup related activities.