Due to her first-hand experience as an entrepreneur in sub-Saharan Africa, Victoria Quaye was invited as a speaker to the Transcultural Leadership Summit 2017 at Zeppelin University in Germany.
She shared her knowledge and experience as founder and CEO of Naaviq Company Limited in a workshop entitled ‘Learning about Start-Ups’, and was part of a panel discussion on ‘Success Stories of sub-Saharan African Entrepreneurship’.
Victoria Quaye is broadly known as an expert on water scarcity in Africa, and invented a method of customised water treatment.
Her invitation to be a speaker at the Transcultural Leadership Summit 2017 in Germany can be considered as recognition of all the effort she has put into establishing and expanding an enterprise focused on the provision of clean water in Ghana. Victoria has been invited to share her experience as an entrepreneur in sub-Saharan Africa at the Transcultural Leadership Summit 2017.
The Transcultural Leadership Summit is itself an annual conference, which deals with questions and challenges of transcultural leadership.
After the great success of 2016’s event focusing on China, the organising students and staff of Zeppelin University again invited experts from different areas of expertise. During the conference they met to discuss with professional leaders and students from all over the world.
At the heart of this year’s event was engagement with the future of sub-Saharan Africa. The region shows many dynamic developments of economic, political and societal nature. Therefore, there is an abundance of opportunities for cooperation and leadership.
To foster the discussion about these opportunities, the Transcultural Leadership Summit brought together people from economic, political and scientific organizations, as well as leaders, young professionals and students.
In this context Victoria Quaye led a workshop focusing on the opportunities and challenges to succeed as a start-up entrepreneur in sub-Saharan Africa.
During the workshop Victoria explained how selling water to domestic and industrial customisers became a successful business model, and how she overcame several of the barriers that often stand in the way of young entrepreneurs and leaders in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the course of the interactive workshop, the approximately 25 participants had opportunities to ask questions and to learn from Victoria’s experience.
The participants’ feedback was very positive: they were grateful for having the opportunity to hear an African perspective on doing business in sub-Saharan Africa, and felt inspired and enlightened by Victoria Quaye’s practical description of the various factors for success and her warning of pitfalls to avoid. A variety of people approached the organisers and Victoria to thank her for sharing her story.
In addition, Victoria’s contribution at the panel discussion on ‘Success Stories of sub-Saharan African Entrepreneurship’ was very well received, and there was a long round of applause when Victoria presented a customised bottle of water to the Transcultural Leadership Summit’s organisers. Overall, Victoria Quaye’s participation at the Transcultural Leadership Summit 2017 was a huge success, and she is very welcome to contribute to future events.
