iValley Ghana successfully holds second savannah startup summit at Damongo

iValley Ghana has successfully held the second edition of the Savannah Startup Summit in Damongo. In the West Gonja Municipality of the Savannah Region. The first Startup Summit was held in January 2022.

The Savannah Startup Summit aims to promote and celebrate the startup culture within the
local ecosystem and also to encourage entrepreneurship among the youth. The Startup
Summit would help create easy access to funding and business support for the early-stage
startups. It is an excellent opportunity for startups from iValley Ghana’s just ended web app
development training to be propelled to the next level, through constructive business
development and investor-readiness feedback to engender possible funding from the
community of local investors.

The Savannah startup summit was held under the theme: digitizing agriculture for sustainable business development and job creation in the Savannah region.

Nabil Mahama, the Executive Director for iValley Ghana, explained that as an innovation hub for Savannah region, iValley Ghana trained 30 participants in Web App development to help digitize agriculture in the area to make the work of farmers easier.
The training also, seeks to make agriculture more efficient and improve on farming generally, by gradually moving away from traditional ways of doing farming using technological innovations.
He added that women needs to be encouraged and empowered to venture into Information Technology adding that, the gender gap in the industry needs to be bridged.
To help improve female participation together with partners , ivalley Ghana started what it labelled “Savannah Ladies in Tech”, where a community of women come to share ideas together on how they can improve career building in tech. They are then transfer to institutions for engagement and also engage in activities of ivalley Ghana.

The training begun with 30 participants but some dropped out along the lines due to technical challenges. Most of them thought they joined the program to learn how to type. So when the training got to the point of coding, some of them couldn’t cope, he added.
The final products of the training were sixteen (16), who were divided into 4 groups.

These 4 groups were made to pitch business ideas. The groups and their assigned business pitches include; Televert (pet and farm animal health), Samakuse Shea or SamShea (Shea nut marketing), Farm Board (farmerline care) and SaMark (Savannah market).

The groups pitched business ideas, identify problems, develop ways to overcome such problems and avail the benefits associated with the pitches.

A business pitch is a version of business plan that’s meant for potential investors to read through and support the business idea with funding and other non financial support. Depending on the format, it may be written, a multimedia presentation, or a personal pitch delivered face to face. It is like writing a proposal to institutions for support to grow and expand your business.

After group presentation of business pitches Televert came top with 39.1% out of 50%. Televert has developed a Web App to help improve health of pet and farm animals living by linking owners and animal health professionals through the Web App.

Team SaMark (Savannah Market) came second. SaMark is an e-commerce platform that helps customers order farm produce and groceries from the comfort of their homes

After presentation of their business pitches Televert came top with 39.1% out of 50%. Televert has developed a web app to help improve health pet and farm animals living by link owners and animal health professionals through the web app.

Team SaMark (Savannah Market) came second. SaMark is an e-commerce platform that helps customers order farm produce and groceries from the comfort of their homes and offices without going to the market.

Team SAMSHEA (Samakuse Shea is an e-commerce platform that connects buyers and sellers of Shea products in Ghana to the rest of the world. They placed third.

Team Farm Board placed fourth. Farm Board designs a Web App that uses modern technology to improve traditional ways of farming through sharing of information and record keeping.
The Web App also allows farmers to issue digital receipts and invoices.

Rev. Samuel Dinkeri Mahama, Ms Doreen Abana and Mr Issac Kofi Ntori constituted the panel of judges.

The iValley Ghana’s Savannah Startup Business Support (StartupBAS) is supported by GhanaTechLab. It aims to promote and celebrate the Startup culture within the Local Ecosystem and also to encourage Entrepreneurship among the youth.

The summit was held to end the seven (7) weeks of training in Web App Development, in the Digitizing Agric Cohort, under the Pathways to Sustainable Employment (PaSE) Program.

iValley Ghana honored two (2) distinguish leaders of change and development from Savannah region with citation awards.
Madam Alijata Haruna, Gender Desk and Chief Tolodompewura Abdallah Ahmed, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, were awarded citations for their continuous support and contribution to maintaining peace, empowering the youth and pushing for development in the Savannah region of Ghana.

The program’s panel discussion and sharing of ideas session which was under the theme, was undertaken by Mr. Bona Kyire – Assistant Park Manager, Mole National Park, Takora John Lipoyema – CEO, Lips Deliveries and Nkabe Raphael – CEO, WireduTour.

The iValley startup summit was held on Saturday, September 3, 2022.