Ashesi University’s Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) has inducted 22 entrepreneurs into its 7th Cohort of GCIC’s business incubator, under the funding of Global Affairs Canada.

The entrepreneurs are made up of 50% female-owned businesses and 40% male-owned businesses with 38% located in Greater Accra, 27% in the Ashanti Region, 15% in the Western Region, whilst the Eastern Region, Central Region, the Volta Region and Upper Region make up 20 %.

GCIC’s cohort 7 includes SMEs whose work and innovations are either aimed at climate change mitigation and adaptation or SMEs exploring the adoption of more climate-smart and sustainable models in their
operations.

They are made up of businesses in five key sectors; 42% are climate-smart agriculture businesses, 27% are into waste management, 15% are energy efficiency organizations, with the rest in the greening and solar energy sectors.

Ruka Sanusi, the Executive Director of GCIC during her induction speech, stated that between June 2017
and 2020, GCIC supported entrepreneurs to generate cumulative revenues of $2.06m, created 733 new jobs, raised additional early and growth-stage financing of more than $2m, and sequestered CO2 emissions of 14,500MT.

In the last year, the Centre has helped to avoid emissions of 70,684.47MT, which is about six times over the five-year target of 10,000MT, and has helped generate revenues of $1,303.323 whilst keeping a gender balance of 50% male and 50% female owned-businesses.

She said “GCIC’s robust business incubation program and interventions, support entrepreneurs to develop and each SME is awarded an average of CAD21,300 to enhance the needed mindset, skillset and
toolset to go the long-haul with their climate innovation by better understanding the factors that determine long-term business success and performance.”

The GCIC’s symbolic presentation of a potted asparagus fern plant to each entrepreneur with an asparagus fern potted plant is symbolic of the process of nurturing a green business and encourages
entrepreneurs to nurture the gift as a reminder of the dedication they will need to demonstrate to grow
their businesses during and after the business incubation period.

The GCIC’s Partnerships, Entrepreneurship, and Investment Director, Dramani Bukari, took the entrepreneurs through the GCIC’s Technical and Product Development workstream and highlighted how
entrepreneurs can improve their product innovation to meet global standards by using the
support services offered by GCIC.

He said “The GCIC works to improve technologies and products, whilst stimulating climate risk mitigation
and improving management practices. We also invested in ensuring that our cohorts grow climate-resilient businesses”.

He continued by saying, “Our grants are available after application and involve the submission of evidence of the efficient and effective utilisation of the awarded funds”.

Other presentations were delivered by the GCIC finance team on the opportunities for GCIC supported
businesses to pitch for and access financial grants.

Daniel Ababio, Senior Manager at EY Ghana (GCIC ‘s implementation partners for the GAC supported
program), who carries out Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of the program said “The M&E process that
EY implementation helps us to track the growth of businesses before and after the 9-month period.

"We are also able to accurately quantify and report on the support that the GCIC gives, and we look forward to sharing your success stories during and at the end of the program”.

The Cohort 7 entrepreneurs were inducted into the GCIC incubation program on October 20, 2022, and
will complete their tenure in June 2023.