An international non-profit organisation Inclab Foundation has introduced an Entrepreneurship Challenge to support Ghanian startups' upscale operations and compete globally.

The maiden edition of the challenge aims to motivate entrepreneurs who have inculcated some digital integration into the operations. Startups qualified for this challenge should be at least a year old.

The competition will see the ultimate winner walk away with funding of $5,000 as a seed fund as well as mentorship support for his or her startup.

The Inclab Entrepreneurship Challenge seeks to promote entrepreneurship among the youth in the country through idea development, training, mentoring, and project implementation.

The Challenge will see a maximum of 100 young people between the ages of 18 and 32 selected from all regions in Ghana to compete for three months.

The project will begin with calls for ideas or startups from all over the country as each entrant apply at the company’s website thus inclabfoundation.org. Registration will officially be opened on February 27.

Through a series of evaluation criteria, a maximum of 100 startups will be selected from the pull of applications received at the entry stage. This will bring the initial number of selected candidates to 100 nationwide.

The 100 qualified entrants will be screened down to 50 by a jury.

A jury will meet the 50 qualified entrants and select a total of 10 startups from the 50 after they have presented their idea to the jury.

The final 10 will be housed (Incubation Stage) for not less than 25 and shall receive training and mentoring, to develop their ideas into full projects.

A total of 10 startups from the incubation stage will be selected to the Pitching Stage, where entrants will get the opportunity to pitch their ideas to investors for possible funding.

After careful evaluation of the projects during the Incubation Period, a seasoned jury will select the most viable project that shall receive funding up to $5,000. The remaining teams shall receive complimentary rewards from partners and sponsors.

The Inclab Entrepreneurship Challenge is being organised by Inclab Foundation to help cut down youth unemployment, as it remains one of the biggest national security threats to the country.

The Inclab Entrepreneurship Challenge seeks to help empower the youth by creating their own jobs and have the capacity to employ others too.