Emanuel Ankrah is a Dutch based Youtube channel manager (specialized in audience growth) and social worker. As an audience growth expert, he helps brands and public personalities in utilizing Youtube channels in effective ways.
Emanuel is setting up an online course and training e-platform for Ghanaians that are looking for affordable training and ways to upgrade their skills when convenient. The main objective is to create entrepreneurs by offering the knowledge to set up and run a business. The founder wants to diminish the unemployment rate in Ghana by offering a variety of learning packages based on selected prizes.
Emanuel won a 10-day validation trip to Ghana among 4 other entrepreneurs who pitched their business idea at the GBT Pitch event on Friday the 23th of March following the 5-week GBT Business Booster.
Dennis Toppin Fofie is a Dutch based gym owner, owner of a Ghanaian based apartment rental company and a Dutch based foundation for educational development in Ghana.
Dennis plans to help 80 citrus farmers who own approximately 600 acres of land combined to sell organic fruits on Western markets. During a trip to Ghana in May 2017, He observed a common problem amongst citrus farmers: overproduction and lack of visibility on the b2b market place. Dennis intends to bring the needed knowledge and training for the farmers to improve the quality of citrus production to international standards. The ultimate goal is to address inconsistency in income and create more employment for Ghanaian farmers.
Dennis won himself a 10-day validation trip at the GBT Pitch event on 23 March at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency in The Hague.
GUYLEN is founded by Lenry Austin, a 25-year old Dutch based Business Administration graduate and online retail store owner. She is the founder of Regina Austin, a web hop specialized in African fashion items and she co-owns Esbos Mini Mart, a healthy product grocery store in Accra, Ghana focused on the middle class.
Lenry is starting a temporary fashion brand and on- and offline store for the Ghanaian working class providing contemporary fashion at an affordable price. The founder observed a lack of easy access to contemporary fashion during her internship at a bank in Ghana in 2013. She also noticed a high demand for fashion from the west. GUYLEN is set up to address the hurdles of accessing fashion at an affordable price in Ghana.
“Ghana is changing fast. Prosperity is growing, and the rising middle class now wants to ‘live the good life’.
– Lenry Austin
Lenry intends to invest in training and machinery in local factories so that the basic garments can be outsourced to factories locally.
Austin believes there is a big emerging market for fashion companies. By outsourcing the fabrication of garments to Ghana, she hopes to not only grow her business but also stimulate the Ghanaian economy by creating jobs.
Lenry is part of five entrepreneurs who won a 10-day validation trip to Ghana at the GBT Pitch Event on the 23rd of March at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency in the Netherlands.
Joshua Asambo is a developmental project coordinator, environmental and energy management graduate. He is the initiator of Hijau Farms, a company that plans to be leader in urban production and the supply of high quality fresh vegetables for supermarkets, hotels, restaurants and homes. He intends to set up a B2B service and deliver to supermarkets, shopping centres and malls.
During his years of working in Ghana, Joshua observed a few issues in the agricultural sector; the short life span of fruits and vegetables and inefficient packaging and transportation. Throughout the years, he upskilled himself in research and developments of new products through market research and analysis in the agricultural business. With his experiences, he intends to set up a farm franchise system, a delivery service, train people for improvement of seeds and technology and create an app for stress-free ordering.
Joshua was selected among five winning entrepreneurs at the GBT Pitch Event, a pitching competition finalizing the 5-week GBT Business Booster. He won a 10-day validation trip for his business case.
Esther Dankwah is a professional athlete, Olympic champion and sports coach. She facilitates one-on-one workshops and training for Ghanaian athletes in the Netherlands and in Ghana. The athlete has organized training courses for Legon University and Metro TV in Ghana and she is part of The Hague Athletics, one of Holland’s largest sports club for athletic training.
Esther observed a lack of a general professional standard in personal training during her frequent visits to Ghana. The athlete is setting up the Esther Dankwah Academy, a certified physical training school for upgrading the skills of personal trainers while educating the Ghanaian population on exercise. The academy will also facilitate personal training at an affordable price to help improve the access of Ghanaians to professional training.
Esther Dankwah is part of five entrepreneurs who won a 10-day validation trip to Ghana at the GBT Pitch Event on the 23rd of March at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency in the Netherlands.
Godwin Afriyie is a Dutch based professional boxer, gym owner and the founder of Choose2Move, a collective of 18 physical trainers and fitness consultants. Godwin plans to grow his fitness chain to Ghana in order to professionalize the quality of national and private security companies by offering self-defence classes and physical training in Ghana for companies and the growing Ghanaian middle class.
About the founder
Godwin’s personal goal is to create life changing opportunities by empowering people to live life to the fullest. Godwin’s business idea addresses the professionalism of national and private security systems in Ghana. With an increasing criminal rate in Ghana, Godwin intends to use his expertise for training and to address the criminal issues and grow the quality of physical training in Ghana.
Abena Anokyewah is a Dutch based marketeer who has built over 10 years of experience at telecom, health care and public transport companies in the Netherlands. She has helped companies grow their customer base and reduce costs.
Abena wants to help Dutch companies access knowledgeable Ghanaian students to create jobs by outsourcing Dutch IT vacancies to Ghana. She sees an opportunity to connect two international industries by bringing Ghanaian IT professionals and Dutch IT companies together. The idea addresses the unemployment in the IT sector in Ghana and it helps Ghanaian IT graduates overcome the hurdles of finding a consistent job in Ghana after they graduate. With her expertise she intends to train Ghanaian professionals, connect them to companies and help smoothen cultural differences.
Louisa Owusu, a leisure manager by profession, plans to innovate the way Ghanaians eat food and prepare home-cooked meals on a daily basis. She intends to set up an online food delivery service and platform that provides easy-to-make meals for expats, households, young professionals, students and corporate businesses in Ghana.
The idea came about Louisa’s frequent visits to Ghana, where she met up with an expat community who love Ghanaian dishes but don’t know how to prepare it. She also discovered that due to busy working schedules and heavy traffic in Accra, people tend to frequently eat outside of their homes. There she saw an opportunity for a healthier and cost-effective solution.
Louisa intends to:
- Create a healthier lifestyle by encouraging the working class in Ghana to make fresh home-cooked meals
- Provide a healthier alternative to unhealthy Ghanaian dishes
- Teach expats to prepare Ghanaian dishes in fun ways.
Get Ghana Moving is founded by Stephen Peprah and Kaylee Portegies Zwart, a Dutch based couple with a passion to help Ghana address health issues through physical exercise and health awareness. Stephen is a personal trainer and has a background in finance. Kaylee is a marketing student and has built a working experience as a marketing officer at a gym in the Netherlands.
Get Ghana Moving addresses particular health issues: obesity and diabetes in Ghana among the working class. It is set up to educate a high-risk group on how to treat health issues that can be solved by effective physical training. It also plans to offer a member app by innovating the way Ghanaians look for health programs and information via an on- and offline knowledge hub relating to health.
Stephen and Kaylee’s idea also seeks to open a gym at a central location in Ghana to facilitate training for the high-risk working group in Ghana.
Sparkle Grow is an idea initiated by Alberta Odame Awuah, a Dutch based retail officer, event organizer and philanthropist who inherited a farm from her dad; “The National Best Farmer for 1988” in Ghana.
Sparkle Grow is set up to grow organic fruit and vegetables for wholesalers, retailers and private individuals. It will provide door-to-door delivery services for private individuals in Ghana, particularly Ghanaian professionals and expats.
Alberta sees a market for quality fruits and vegetables processed in more healthy ways, due to growing group of expats in Ghana. She wants to start growing oranges, mangoes, spinach and tomatoes to invite a sustainable way of growing her fruits and vegetation to guarantee a good quality.
Emmanuel Blackson is a Dutch based television presenter and economist who intends to innovate the way Ghanaians drink water. During his frequent visits to Ghana he observed the growing issue of plastic waste (through water sachets). You and Me Drinking Water is set up to address this issue by supplying solar powered water coolers.
The water brand targets a low income group in Ghana and intends to work with governmental institutions, hospitals and schools in Ghana. It plans to provide quality but low-cost portable bottles to help make Ghana a cleaner environment.
Adu Agyemang and Francis O. Dwamenah are two Dutch based farmers who are determined to address current problems that relate to food shortage in parts of Ghana.
The farmers own 1300 acres of land in Ghana for the supply of maize and soybeans purposed for school feeding programs, hospitals, orphan homes and police and military academies.
The farmers first plan to grow maize and soybeans to local institutions in Ghana. On the long run, the farmers intend to abstract cooking oil from both products and also grow ginger, tiger nuts, ground nuts and other vegetables.