HOPin Academy Hosts Tamale Startup Summit
From Web Development to Pitching of Business Ideas: The First Start-up Summit in the Northern Region.
After six intensive weeks of training on web development, HOPin Academy, an entrepreneurship ecosystem support organization in collaboration with Ghana Tech Lab launched the Tamale startup summit which was held at Radach Lodge and conference centre in Tamale on the 5th of September,2020. Trainees were tasked to come up with business ideas (Startups) to pitch on their ideas at the summit. The audience was privileged to witness at first hand spectacular and spellbinding performances from trainees. The buzz and excitement could be felt on HOPin Academy’s social media handle particularly, Facebook.
The Local Start-up summit is an excellent opportunity that presents entrepreneurs and innovators the avenue to take their craft to enterprising levels. It creates an avenue for startups to pitch innovative ideas, it assembles investors and innovators in one place. Aside from this, it increases access to funding within the ecosystem and more importantly promotes startup culture in the community. The summit was aimed at creating a platform for startups to launch their products, present their ideas and to get feedback from investors and successful entrepreneurs.
Even though the Tamale startup Summit was a one-day event, it left so much to be desired. The reinforced camaraderie among trainees and trainers as well as the entire membership of HOPin Academy and the representatives of Ghana Tech Lab was conspicuously apparent. The summit had representation from people of diverse backgrounds; from investors to bankers and many others.
Mr Abdul Karim from the National Board for Small Scale Business Industries (NBSSI) was the keynote speaker. He spoke about entrepreneurship, its benefits and how to grow in the entrepreneurial system using web development. There was a panel discussion on web development and how it impacts the local ecosystem. The panellist, who had a deep knowledge of web development, explained adequately to the audience on how the world of entrepreneurship is gradually transitioning to one that is web development friendly.
After the panel discussion, the pitching sessions began, the various teams had innovative solutions from various sectors (education, agriculture, and health). All the teams had wonderful ideas, however, the best three were awarded for performing extraordinarily well. ReDHealth, an acronym for Redefining Digital Health, came first. A platform that offers convenience for patience or individuals to connect to health practitioners depending on the services required at the comfort of their homes. Doctors, Nurses, laboratory technicians, and pharmacies. They were followed closely by team PAS. An acronym for paperless administration system. This is an administrative management system that allows the creation, storage, retrieval, update, and backups of records and data. This aims to eliminate the use of manual recording for proper organization of office records. Certified tutors came third, Certified Tutors is an online learning management system that connects students to subject matter tutors to have interactive one on one learning sessions at subsidized fees. This summit, being the first of its kind in the region, was not only historical, but there was also so much to learn and the enthralling performances of web developers left the audience yearning for more.