Enterprise Support

For 10 years now, we have been actively supporting small businesses to access capital and scale.

The Challenge

As much as 35% of the population in Ghana is between 15-35 years, and this group is highly affected by the social, political, and economic development in the country. They experience social injustices and inequalities in several areas of their lives, but they are also the main drivers of future change, and ensuring that they have the capacity and supporting structures to participate and influence the development is therefore essential. Economically, the youth constitutes a large share of the labour market. With the Northern Region being primarily a rural setting, they have limited access to employment in the private formal sector and public sector and have to seek job opportunities in the private informal sector or pursue self-employment. The result has been a significant migration of the youth to the southern regions, where they, often unsuccessfully, seek better opportunities

how we address it

HOPin Academy designed and launched an intensive business incubation program in 2013 where young people in Tamale gain access to expert mentors and resources to develop their business ideas and gain investment readiness. Overarchingly, the program supports early-stage entrepreneurs/startups looking for avenues to grow their businesses. Entrepreneurs learn how to effectively pitch their products and services, perform extensive market research and customer validation exercises, get hands-on training on business development and join a network of experienced entrepreneurs. And also gain access to a pool of experts and learning resources

the process (Call for application)

The Incubation team conduct user research among the community members and key stakeholders of HOPin Academy to identify interesting areas for the incubation cohort. Based on the results, the cohort is themed for three selected areas, eg. Agritech, Food Processing, Waste Management.
A flier is designed and shared on HOPin’s Social Accounts as well as partner’s emails. Also, a radio jingle is prepared and the program is advertised via radio to accommodate youth without access to the internet.
Program Criteria:
Applicants should be residents of Tamale or its environs.
Must have an existing team of 2- 4 co-founders Teams should either be in ideation or operation for less than a year.
All founders should be between 18 and 35 years.
All founders must be available & committed for the full duration of the program.

Program Perks

Access to Finance

Through our current partners Bidrag til Ghana and GIZ NRW, we provide a prototype matching grant of up to $500 to selected businesses that graduate our enterprise support programs.

Community Meetups

We organize bi-weekly community events to convene youth and entrepreneurship stakeholders to network and dialogue on key areas of interest. This serves as an opportunity for the entrepreneurs in training to network and learn from subject matter experts.

Mentorship

We have a mentorship network of over 50 subject matter experts who provide expert support and guidance to our founders throughout our programs.

Program Structure

We run business incubation and acceleration programs. These are targeted towards youth at the various levels of business growth.

Pre-Incubation

For idea stage businesses.

Incubation

For early stage businesses

Business Acceleration

For growth stage enterprises looking to scale and unlock capital.

Accelerator

Scale Your Business Accelerator

HOPin Academy’s three-month Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program: Scaling Your Business, provides entrepreneurs with a proven toolkit that goes beyond the idea. Leveraging the Academy’s strength in data-driven outcomes, we share proven techniques for scaling your business. Topics include how to build a team, choose the right legal structure, generate demand, and finance growth. And with pitch competition awards of up to $5K for investments, change could happen faster than you think.