Standard Chartered has inducted 20 new female start-ups into the 4th Cohort of the Standard Chartered Women in Tech incubator programme.

The programme is implemented by Ashesi University’s Ghana Climate Innovation Centre and is dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs.

With a renewed focus on sustainability, this year’s programme reflects the Bank’s commitment to fostering environmentally and socially responsible business practices.

Mansa Nettey, Chief Executive, Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC, emphasised the importance of the programme, stating, “The Bank is deeply passionate about our communities and continues to create opportunities that will help the youth to have a brighter future. To advance gender diversity in tech for entrepreneurs, we need ‘sheroes’ and change-makers to drive innovation and shape the future”.

She also shared nuggets of advice with the inductees, inspiring them to be authentic, confident and ambitious.

The Standard Chartered Women in Technology Incubator programme speaks to the bank’s strategy of investing in women-owned businesses to bring greater prosperity and diversity to the communities in which they operate, with emphasis on supporting innovation, infrastructure and technology. Through this initiative, women entrepreneurs have a platform to build capacity and realize their full potential in the world of business.

Additionally, six entrepreneurs will receive grant of USD 10,000 (equivalent in GHS) each at the culmination of the programme, highlighting the bank’s commitment to nurturing growth and innovation in the tech industry, with a strong emphasis on sustainability.

Ruka Sanusi, Executive Director of the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre, highlighted the achievements of previous cohorts, stating that in three cohorts, the Standard Chartered Women in Tech programme had incubated 54 businesses, with these enterprises generating over GHC2 million in revenues during their incubation period of 6 months, and employing over 400 people.

In her address, Janet Sunkwa Mills, Marketing Consultant, Board Member of the Executive Women Network, (EWN), and CEO of Jane’M Salon & Spa, issued a call-to-action to the inductees to re-imagine and reinvent solutions that foster meaningful global impact.

Georgette Barnes Sakyi-Addo, founder and Executive Director of Georgette Barnes Ltd., a Ghanaian drilling and mining supplies company, charged the twenty female business owners to work towards overcoming any gender issues they may face in their business journey, citing her own experiences to encourage them.

Launched in 2014 in New York, Standard Chartered Bank’s Women in Technology Incubator programme is now a global programme and implemented in 9 markets in Africa and Middle East including Ghana.