KIC and Mastercard Foundation build the capacity of young people through entrepreneurship training

KIC and Mastercard Foundation have commenced a series of Zonal Pitches across four different zones, namely South East, South West, Middle, and Northern Zones, as a build-up for the 2023 AgriTech Challenge Classic. Twenty (20) Teams from each of the universities are pitching their business ideas to a panel of Ideation Team members who will identify the scalable and viable businesses to join for the finals of the AgriTech Challenge Classic to take place in December 2023. For the South East Zone, the pitch took place from 30^th to 31st October 2023, which included participating universities; University of Ghana (UG), Ho Technical University and Koforidua Technical University. The Middle Zonal pitch took place from 2nd to 3rd November, 2023, and included the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and University for Energy and Natural Resources (UENR). The South West Zonal pitch took place from the 8th to 9th of November, 2023, with University of Cape Coast (UCC) and Takoradi Technical University. From 14^th to 15th November 2023, the Northern Zonal Pitch will feature the University for Development Studies; SD Dombo University of Business & Integrated Development Studies and Bolgatanga Technical University.

Prior to the Zonal Pitches, regional pitches were organised with a total of 267 teams, comprising 1,035 ‘AgriTechies’, and each consisting of 3 to 4 team members from partner universities, presenting their pitches. These selected teams were composed of 722 ‘AgriTechies’. The KIC AgriTech Challenge Classic is a seven-month program designed to identify and nurture aspiring young entrepreneurs with a keen interest in establishing their own businesses. This initiative offers participants comprehensive support, including coaching, market research assistance, and business development training for their innovative business concepts using internal and external subject matter experts. The Teams to progress to the finals will be announced in late November, 2023. Through KIC’s partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, the AgriTech Challenge Classic expects to train about 4,880 young people across the partner universities from 2022-2025, collaborating with regional academic partners such as universities and technical schools. Speaking at this year’s program, Executive Director for KIC, Benjamin Gyan-Kesse said: “This year, KIC has been able to reach more young people through our partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. Our focus is to encourage the youth to use technology and innovation along the entire agricultural value chain, to develop entrepreneurial solutions to some of the pertinent challenges within the sector. We are looking forward to supporting businesses that combine sustainability, innovation and technology within the agricultural sector.”

The KIC AgriTech challenge offers comprehensive training and resources on entrepreneurship. As a build- up to the pitches, participants have been trained in core areas such as Business Model Canvas, Pitch Decks preparation, Target and User Persona, Go-To-Market Strategy, Competitor Analysis and Market Sizing, Revenue Model and Unit Economics, Team Formation and Business Concept. Other subjects covered include Personal Discovery and Team Effectiveness, Introduction to minimum viable product (MVP) – Lean Methodology, MVP Testing – Research Protocol, Data & Metrics, Accounting/Bookkeeping and Finances. Other topics such as “Personal Discovery and Team Effectiveness” (PD & TE) were designed to enhance team members’ self-awareness and foster better team cohesion and productivity. In his remarks, Ato Ulzen- Appiah, Entrepreneurship Development Specialist at KIC said: “The KIC Classic Zonal Pitches are a celebration of how far these young people have come in their entrepreneurship journey. The AgriTech teams have leveraged funding support from KIC in partnership with Mastercard Foundation, to do their market research while working on and improving their business models and pitch decks. It is exciting to see innovative and commercially viable solutions being built to solve problems along the agric value chain.”