The incubator and accelerator business hubs project, known as the ‘Job Station’ will provide the physical presence, mentoring and funding for entrepreneurs to enable them to transform the economy.

The Chief Executive Officer of the African SME Organisation, Mr Yaw Asamoah said his outfit was doing it in collaboration with partner institutions across the country and the first ‘Job Station’ to host about 100 entrepreneurs would be launched by the end of the year.

Speaking at the opening of the 4th African SME Summit in Accra, he said, the African SME organisation, was selected as the private sector implementation partner for the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP) under the Ministry of Business Development in which the setting up of the job stations would feature.

Some of the job stations, he said, would be put up on the campuses of the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University of Ghana (UG).

“We are launching the first Job Station at CEIBS by the end of the year. We have already secured partnership with KNUST and UG so we will put Job Stations on the campuses as well by early next year.

Next year we are looking at setting up about 20 Job Stations across the country.

Mr Asamoah added that the job stations would be the assembling area for new businesses that will change the local economy.

The Job Station concept

The job station will be a physical space to be made available to both startups and businesses who want to grow their businesses at a fee.

There will be a co- working incubator and accelerator space, where business owners can get a desk to operate in any of the job stations suitable to help grow their businesses.

“There would be a desk at the job station and they can work from there and you will pay very little to pay for the desk to work. We are going to have 25 job stations across the country and each Job Station will host a minimum of 100 entrepreneurs and businesses so if we have 25, that is about 2,500 entrepreneurs,” he said in a later interview.

Nurturing entrepreneurs

The aim of the concept, according to Mr Asamoah is to nurture entrepreneurs that would help drive economic growth and to create jobs.

For startup companies, they would receive a three-month training at the incubator space at the job station to learn about entrepreneurship and how to position their businesses for growth.

“The incubator place will be for startups. So if you just started a business and you don’t know what to do, we can take you through a 3-month training programme, and teach you the rudiments of entrepreneurship, how to put your business plans together and how to put your minimum viable product together and quickly start,” he said.

He added that “the aim is that after the 3 months, you would have had your business case study well written, and you can go out and really face the world.”

For businesses that are already operating, they would have the opportunity to benefit from the accelerator programme which will provide them with requisite training and support needed to expand their businesses.

Africa Summit 2017

On the theme, “Micro- Multinationals – growing SMEs through digital technologies, the forum will educate participants on how to accelerate their businesses through industry focused presentations and discussions.

They would also learn about how to avoid common pitfalls in business and deal with nuisances involved in scaling up their businesses.