Standard Chartered has inducted 20 new female start-ups into the fourth Cohort of the Standard Chartered Women in Tech incubator programme.
The programme is implemented by Ashesi University’s Ghana Climate Innovation Centre and is dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs.
With a renewed focus on sustainability, this year’s programme reflects the Bank’s commitment to fostering environmentally and socially responsible business practices.
Mansa Nettey, Chief Executive, Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC, emphasized the importance of the programme, stating, “the Bank is deeply passionate about our communities and continues to create opportunities that will help the youth to have a brighter future. To advance gender diversity in tech for entrepreneurs, we need ‘sheroes’ and changemakers to drive innovation and shape the future”.
She also shared nuggets of advice with the inductees, inspiring them to be authentic, confident and ambitious.
The Standard Chartered Women in Technology Incubator programme speaks to the Bank’s strategy of investing in women- owned businesses to bring greater prosperity and diversity to the communities in which they operate with emphasis on supporting innovation, infrastructure and technology.
Through this initiative, women entrepreneurs have a platform to build capacity and realize their full potential in the world of business.
Additionally, six entrepreneurs will receive grant of USD 10,000 (equivalent in GHS) each at the culmination of the programme, highlighting the bank’s commitment to nurturing growth and innovation in the tech industry, with a strong emphasis on sustainability.
Ruka Sanusi, Executive Director of the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre, highlighted the achievements of previous cohorts, stating that in three cohorts, the Standard Chartered Women in Tech programme had incubated 54 businesses, with these enterprises generating over GHC2M in revenues during their incubation period of 6 months, and employing over 400 people.
In her address, Janet Sunkwa Mills, Marketing Consultant, Board Member of the Executive Women Network, (EWN), and CEO of Jane’M Salon & Spa, issued a call-to-action to the inductees to reimagine and reinvent solutions that foster meaningful global impact.
Georgette Barnes Sakyi-Addo, founder and Executive Director of Georgette Barnes Ltd., a Ghanaian drilling and mining supplies company, charged the twenty female business owners to work towards overcoming any gender issues they may face in their business journey, citing her own experiences to encourage them.
Launched in 2014 in New York, Standard Chartered Bank’s Women in Technology Incubator programme is now a global programme and implemented in 9 markets in Africa and Middle East including Ghana.
Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC
Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC is Ghana’s premier bank established in 1896. We are a leading international banking group, with a presence in 59 of the world’s most dynamic markets and serving clients in a further 64.
Its purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, and our heritage and values are expressed in our brand promise, here for good.
Standard Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.
Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC)
The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) is an institute of Ashesi University, and a pioneering business incubator with a unique focus on developing sustainable SME ventures and entrepreneurs in Ghana’s Green Economy.
The mission is to develop and support an exceptional set of transformational ventures and entrepreneurs who are pioneering innovation and adaptive or mitigating solutions for economic resilience and climate change issues in Ghana.
It does this with a focus on key economic sectors, the provision of premium business advisory and business mentoring services, technical support in the development, prototyping and testing of their innovation, as well as financial grants to qualifying SMEs within our incubator.
