Incubators management training workshop opens
Mr Gideon Quarcoo, Deputy Minister for Communication, has called on managers and sponsors of business incubation programmes in Africa to increase activities in research and development and lead the crusade in business development in all sectors.
He said this would help business incubators to collaborate with the universities, research institutions as well as professional training centres in the promotion of business entities.
Mr Quarcoo said this at the opening ceremony of the First Incubators Management Training and Certification workshop for business incubator practitioners in Ghana as well as other countries organised by the Ghana Multimedia Incubator Centre (GMIC) in partnership with National Business Incubation Association (NBIA).
The business incubation is about putting business and Information Communication Technology (ICT) ideas together at a given place and providing such packages with business development, marketing, mentorship, and office space for advancement.
Mr Quarcoo said in May, this year, GMIC concluded discussion with Ministry of Communication to use Ghana as the hub for running International Business Incubation Training and other Entrepreneurship and Business Development Programmes, for the delivery of ICT services as well as world-class training in business incubation management.
He said the initiative offer incubator practitioners in Africa and time and space to offer more value to their clients and forge stronger international alliances with incubators managers in other markets and also address the challenges facing the incubation industry in Africa.
He said the government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) over the years had supported the GMIC to promote ICT Entrepreneurship Development and Technology Commercialization through the incubation of ICT business start-ups and developed the much needed ICT skills under the government’s ICT for Accelerated Development Policy.
He noted that tenants of GMIC through the process of nurturing had chalked achievements such as winning the 2007 Innovation Award at the GK Innovation Awards by the Malaysian government and was also selected as one of the 11 winners of 2009 Global Innovators contest organised by the Information Development (InfoDev).
He urged all participants to make the best of the opportunity and lay the foundation for becoming future resource persons in their own rights.
Mr Solomon Asante Dartey, Project Director of GMIC, said the training opportunity had come at a time when many countries acknowledged the development of Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) as key in promoting equitable and sustaining economic development.
“Indeed, SMEs have a crucial role to play in stimulating growth, generating employment and contributing to poverty alleviation in African countries”, he said.
He commended NBIA for collaborating with GMIC to promoted business incubation and entrepreneurship development in Africa.
Mr Frederick Ampiah, Partnership Adviser of United Nation Development Programme, said businesses around the world had difficulties in transforming their ideas into viable commercial ventures hence they needed the support of business incubation to addressed the challenges.
He said innovation incubation helped developed the manpower pool for outsourcing industries and boost job creation in the ICT sector.
Mr Ampiah said the training was a regional programme organised in Ghana and with countries from South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria, Ethiopia and United States of America to help promote entrepreneurship in the ICT sector.
He reiterated that the training would help Ghanaian research institutions to appreciate the best practices in how to commercialise their research projects and provide them with the necessary business modules for effective businesses.
Source: GNA