The Impulse is a 12-week acceleration programme dedicated to innovative start-ups in the fields of Agritech, BioTech, Mining Tech and Materials Science and Nano Engineering and helps entrepreneurs to take their start-ups to the next level.

The programme was designed by Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UMVIP) together with MassChallenge, a global accelerator organisation with support from the OCP Group and its subsidiary OCP Africa to sustain their ambitious innovation agenda in the fields of agritech, biotech, mining tech and materials science and nanotech.

Mr Adnane Alaoui Soulimani, the Impulse Programme Director made the call when he addressed entrepreneurs at an information session organised by the UMVIP in Accra.

He said; "Mohammed VI Polytechnic University is proud to have created, together with MassChallenge and OCP group, a unique and outstanding value proposition for start-ups working on African challenges.

"We are also pleased to be able to empower our own youth and entrepreneurs to invent our own future, respecting our identities and following our own models of development."

Mr Soulimani said the Impulse team was delighted to be able to present and discuss the programme offering with representatives from the Ghanaian start up ecosystem, adding; "We look forward to receiving applications from Ghanaian entrepreneurs to our programme."

Nana Akyaa Akosa, an Executive Director of the National Food and Agricultural Show advised the youth in Agribusiness to focus on a particular niche and perfect it in order to be successful.

She noted that women in Agritech would benefit a lot when they were supported by organisations like OCP Africa and encouraged start-ups to take advantage of the Impulse programme to grow their businesses.

Madam Paulina Ady Wiad, the Director of Women in Agriculture at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) said the government through other private organisations have trained women in tractor operation and 60 of them would be graduating  soon.

 "MoFA has collaborated with OCP Africa on a number of projects for smallholder farmers. Impulse is an innovative project, which will change the Agribusiness landscape in Ghana and the Ministry will once again support this brilliant innovative initiative to succeed in Ghana," she said.

Madam Catherine Akpaloo, a farmer and a tractor operator in the Volta Region said the initiative had helped her to increase her farm yields and revenue, adding that; "When I took over the management of my parents' farm, I adopted an innovation which helps me identify pest and diseases and reduce them, which resulted in the increase of the farm yields."