First-ever Student Entrepreneurship Week Pan-Africa to be held in Ghana; offers participants up to USD$100,000 investment

SFAN (Stars From All Nations) is organizing the first-ever Student Entrepreneurship Week Pan-Africa (SEWAfrica) from July 22 to –July 24, 2019, at the Ecobank Head Office in Accra.
Student Entrepreneurship Week is an education forum established by SFAN to solve the issue of youth unemployment by helping budding entrepreneurs gain actionable, experiential knowledge and tools for building sustainable businesses. #SEWAfrica also serves as a platform for showcasing talents, facilitating networking and identifying funding sources for start-up businesses.
The event is expected to host about 700 high potential innovators from around the continent over three days of power-packed training, thought leadership, pitching, and insightful conversations.
High growth technology entrepreneurs targeting a billion-dollar market will have the chance to pitch their businesses for funding of up to $100,000 during the 1-on-1 pitch session with Ingressive Capital, an Africa-focused venture capital fund. Ingressive Capital is sector agnostic. This means you can have a company in Fintech, manufacturing tech, ISP, logistics, O&G tech, or health-tech as long as you’re focused on a scalable market. The Fund’s past investments include Paystack and Tizeti, who recently raised significant Series A investments, as well as AwaBike and more.
 
Investors like QI Holdings, an AI venture building firm are also excitedly open to investing up to $10,000 in start-ups that are the right fit for them. Partners for the event include Ingressive Capital, QI Holdings, Movemeback, ABANAngels, 3rdfloor Digital, Venture Capital for Africa, East Gate Hotel, and more.
 
Being a Pan African Banking institution, with a vision to contributing to the economic development and financial integration of Africa, Ecobank Ghana supports SFAN in its work to unlocking business potentials of young Africans for job creation.
SFAN President, Tom-Chris Emewulu says: “We’re incredibly excited to be creating the pan-African Student Entrepreneurship Week to equip young and ambitious innovators with tools they need to build successful businesses. We’re excited to partner with Ecobank, the pan-African bank, to host this brilliant event. As with SFAN events, we’re assembling some of the best and brightest speakers and trainers to spark meaningful conversations that help turn ideas into innovations.”

Student Entrepreneurship Week Pan-Africa Speakers and agenda
The event will welcome a diverse array of speakers from around the world. Starting with a hands-on bootcamp at the venue, Ecobank Head office Accra, trainers from their partner organization, Ecobank will take attendees through all the processes of financial modeling, highlighting sustainable business funding. Then participants shall take a moment to review how to build a purpose-driven business with Kristian Bengtsson, Co-founder of Human And Kind. Afterward, Dario Giuliani, co-founder of Brighter Bridges and Kelvin Nyame, founder of Meqasa shall lead us through the processes of business ideation, validation, market analysis, and growth; as well founding team and mentors. This will be followed by a Masterclass on branding & marketing hacks for founders on a low budget with Princewill Omorogiuwa, founder of 3rdfloor Digital & Motivating Africa. They shall round off the day with a digital makeover to help participants clean up their digital footprints.
Day two of SEWAfrica bootcamp at the venue will be explosive! Participants will join a highly-charged atmosphere of High-Performance Training & Game Changer Moment themed rewire your mind for greatness. For this session, Akua Nyame Mensah, Business Strategist/Certified Coach and Babs Ofori, Wellbeing and Yogi Coach will sit down with our guests to help them learn how to get their minds and bodies into state and rewire their thinking for success! This will be followed by a talk from Rodney Quarcoo, founder of RQV on digital storytelling in today’s Africa. They shall also join another talk on fake news and online privacy.
For the second session of the day, they shall delve into the areas of technology, product development & making sense of data. And then, Suzanne Butah, the Legal Director of Guinness Ghana shall mount the podium to share exclusive insights on the legal structure and how to use the law to protect yourself and your business. William Senyo, Co-founder of Impact Hub Accra/Partner at Ingressive Capital will enlighten the guests on what investors look for in a startup through a conversational Investor-readiness masterclass. This will culminate in SFAN’s proprietary Readyforwork Startup Coaching session: a 1-on-1 coaching session for founders.
The final day of Student Entrepreneurship Week Pan-Africa will be an exciting day of thought leadership and business pitch. The day will begin with a keynote on the event theme, unlocking the business potentials of young people for job creation. And then, they’ll join a high-level panel on intra-Africa trade and diaspora collaboration featuring Ayesha Bedwei, Tax Partner at PwC Ghana, Mimshack Obioha, Partnership Director at Ventures Platform, Tucci Goka Ivowi, Deputy CEO and a founding member of the Ghana Commodity Exchange, Toro Orero, Partner at QI Holdings, Miishe Addy, Co-founder of Jetstream and moderated by Yasmin Kumi, Founder of Africa Foresight Group.
Subsequently, an Ashley Zakia Ancordi-led 10% Dialogue will take the center stage to explore how to create an enabling entrepreneurship ecosystem in Africa. This panel will feature a vast array of speakers including Victor Asemota, Africa partner at Alta Global Ventures, Grace Ihejiamaizu, Founder of Opportunity Desk, Maxwell Dodd, CEO of Econet Media Ghana,  and Sean Burrowes, COO of Ingressive Capital.
After the 10% Dialogue, participants will be treated to a keynote panel that’ll take a deep dive into Africa’s hot sectors with a focus on education, payments, agriculture, e-commerce, and healthcare. This session will feature speakers such as Dan Asare-Kyei, Ph.D., CEO of Esoko, Dika Oha, Developer Growth Director at Andela, Pearlyn Budu, Country Manager at Jumia Food.
Experts have said that talent is not enough. Many people spend years mastering an underlying technical skill and almost no time mastering the multiplier skill. Consequently, they’ve invited two trailblazers, Eyram Tawia, Co-founder of Leti Arts and Vimbai Mutinhiri, Executive Producer of Mambo Media to share with us their tips and strategies for harnessing and monetizing your talents. The session will be moderated by Philip Ashon of Citi TV.
After a lunch break, Uly Ogwah, Co-founder and CEO of African Art Archive will take the stage to talk about Content: Now. Future. Beyond. How to plan 3D to remain competitive in the transformative age.
After his session, the Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award will be presented to the winners.
On the heel of the content masterclass and award session, participants shall have the time to pitch their businesses for funding with participating investors.
The meeting will draw to a close with product demos and marketplace exhibitions. Indeed, Student Entrepreneurship Week Pan-Africa will be 3 days of power-packed thought leadership, experiential learning, inspiration, networking, and insightful conversations!
Applications have been extended to July 7. To apply, visit studententrepreneurshipweek.com.
For more information about sponsorship or to secure a booth space, contact the team via info(at)sfanonline.org