Telecel Group has extended its flagship social acceleration and investment programme, the Africa Startup Initiative Programme (ASIP) powered by Startupbootcamp AfriTech to Accra as part of its efforts to developing businesses in Africa.
The programme which has already began a tour of Cohort II of the ASIP Accelerator programme event has already made stops in South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria and expected to move to Senegal after Ghana.
According to the Executive Deputy of Telecel Group and ASIP Director, Eleanor Azar the initial programme was not enough to build startups, hence, the introduction of ASIP which is more refined to tackle the issues of startups in Africa.
“After certain point in time we saw that this is not enough way so we met Startupbootcamp in November 2019 and we saw that there was a lot that we can do for them. We signed an agreement and went into establishing a programme with them that will not only go about scouting but will help them to scale up and give them the support they needed to make their business more profitable and successful,” she stated.
It was through the establishment of the programme which led to the coming up of the first cohort which was very successful and had about 10 startups making it and are currently the alumni of the programme.
Ms. Azar indicated that Telecel Group remains committed to developing the next generation of Tech businesses and entrepreneurs for the continent through providing adequate support.
Sharing the opportunities available for startups that are able to make it to the finals after pitching, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Startupbootcamp and Afritech, Philip Kiracofe said benefits such as access to investors, access to corporate contract and others plus an $18,000 cash goes to the lucky ones.
Mr. Kiracofe stated that the problems in Africa are unique yet do not need an external person to solve but will be best solved by Africans because of familiarity, hence, the move to support African startups to develop the continent through solving problems.
He remarked that “we are super excited to provide additional resources so that those founders that have brilliant ideas can wake up completely and can compete with founders that are in much established continents. So through the ASIP programme, we are making available resources for them.”
Many of the startups who completed their applications to join Cohort II of the ASIP acceleration programme were present to pitch their innovative solutions to experienced panel of judges and mentors.
