Ghana Tech Lab, in partnership with Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works, is supporting local solutions in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The SLI-COVID-19 Challenge aims to support and scale-up innovative solutions to stop the spread of the pandemic. Selected local entrepreneurs stand the chance of being awarded up to 10,000 USD to support their work in tackling COVID-19.
The Challenge builds on the Scaling Local Innovation program and is Ghana Tech Lab and Mastercard Foundation’s response to the need to rapidly mobilize, support, and scale local innovations with the potential to provide essential services and products during and after the pandemic.
The SLI-COVID-19 Challenge is focused on scaling existing solutions from local entrepreneurs that are directly or indirectly related to mitigating the adverse effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, while also creating work opportunities for young women and men.
The Challenge received a total of 199 applications across the country with some applications from other countries like Nigeria, Gambia and the United States.
We received a range of interventions from digital and IT solutions, to health care and environmental solutions, fashion and food delivery solutions.
After an initial screening, 15 short-listed applicants submitted an online pitch for further review and selection. After the final screening, 6 local innovations were selected to have made it through to the program.
The SLI-COVID-19 Challenge will run from April to May 2020. The 6 final participants will receive daily online coaching for the duration of the process. They will also receive technical and business mentorship to support them with product development in preparation for their product implementation. Finalists will present their contributions in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic at an online product presentation session in May 2020.
After product presentation and assessments, all 6 innovative solutions will be presented with a grant up to 10,000 USD each to help scale their innovations and make them accessible to the market.
Ghana Tech Lab is an open collaborative tech space for competent digital skills training, seeding innovations and growing startups. Ghana Tech Lab is a joint venture between Innohub Ghana and Kumasi Hive under the E-Transform Project of the Ministry of Communications and funded by the World Bank. In its collaboration with Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works, Ghana Tech Lab is moving beyond upgrading the skills of young people in Ghana so that they are equipped for dignified work opportunities, to supporting young entrepreneurs and small business owners to expand their businesses and create additional work opportunities.
