The Kosmos Innovation Centre (KIC) says it will continue to empower more youth to drive the digital revolution of Ghana’s agriculture sector in the country.
So far more than 300 young men and women have received training in agric technology and start-ups to commence their own businesses in the sector.
Established as the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSP) arm of Kosmos Energy in 2016, the centre focuses on empowering young men and women to drive innovation in agriculture.
Already 11 agri-tech companies offering cutting-edge solutions within the entire value chain of the agriculture sector have catalyzed out of the centre’s flagship programme dubbed: “The AgriTech Challenge”.
The new companies being driven by young innovative Ghanaians are Agro Innova, Antitrack, Complete Farmer, Ghalami, Qualitrace, Trotro Tractor, Techshelta, Profish also known as “Lojaanor”, Soil Solution, Kwidex and Growth Factor also known as “Nvoicia”.
Speaking to the “Ghanaian Times” on the sidelines of a field visit to some selected digitised agricultural sites in the country, the Director of KIC, Mr George Sarpong said the centre was established with the objective of creating real success and true impact in the area of agriculture.
He said even though agriculture was the largest employer in the country, steps have not been taken to make it attractive for the youth.
According to him the driving force of agriculture across the globe was the application of cutting-edge technology and innovation which also doubled as the passion of the youth, stressing that “It is important that if we are to attract a lot of our youth into agriculture, then we must make a conscious effort to introduce technology into it.”
He explained that one of the key objectives of the KIC was to help empower young men and women to drive innovation in the agriculture which was also the largest employer in the country.
Mr. Sarpong who is also the Director, Corporate Affairs of Kosmos Energy explained that as part of their activities, persons who got the opportunity to be selected were provided the necessary skill sets and funding support to enable them create their own companies.
“So far through our flagship entrepreneurship and business development programme- the AgriTech Challenge, we have been able to create 11 companies who are providing the needed solutions for farmers in our country,” he said.
In addition to receiving the necessary skill set and funding, the centre through its programmes focused on empowering the youth to drive innovation as well as training them to lead sustainable and successful businesses.
“To date we have trained more than 300 young people and have nurtured some of the most promising youth-driven, agri-tech start-ups in Ghana today,” he stressed.
Mr. Sarpong said KIC would continue to provide the needed support to these companies in order to make them infectious, adding that “We want these young companies to be infectious, infectious in the sense that other young people graduating from college can say hey! Wait a minute…..yesterday, John, Kofi, Kwesi, Ama and Kwame were running around with me but now they are CEOs running their own businesses, I can also do it.”
He noted that already the programme was making the desired impact as majority of the people who applied to be part of the competition applied because of testimonial and references by their colleagues who had benefitted from it.
“We here to make a real success, make a true impact in the agric sector. We want to see a critical mass of created and then we can move on to another sector and create the same impact,’ he said.
Mr. Sarpong noted that Kosmos Energy had invested a lot of money in the centre because it was important to their operations and had even created similar centres in other countries of their operations.
“This is a success and it is a success which is for all Ghanaians and everybody that can contribute in like form must come on board because we are creating through our skill sets and we are creating the companies that can ensure that the programmes is successful,” he added.
CAPTION: Mr. Sarpong (middle), Director of the Kosmos Innovation Centre briefing journalists on their activities
