Orange Corners backs 14 start-ups

By Christabel DANSO ABEAM

Fourteen domestic start-ups have pitched their businesses to investors and industry stakeholders at the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Accra, marking the climax of Orange Corners Ghana’s 10th cohort acceleration programme.

Implemented by GrowthAfrica, the Orange Corners Ghana initiative provides young entrepreneurs with training, mentorship market access and funding support to scale innovative ventures.

The six-month programme was crowned with three pitch sessions, where entrepreneurs demonstrated solutions which could bring aid agribusiness, health-tech, logistics and digital innovation.

The event had participation from the Orange Corners Innovation Fund (OCIF), Fidelity Bank Ghana, Venture Capital Trust Fund, Wangara Green Ventures and Sahara Green Ventures, among other institutional investors.

Delivering the opening remarks, Programme Manager – Orange Corners Ghana, Eugene Eluerkeh, set the tone by commending the growth and transformation of the entrepreneurs while emphasising that the role of the programme is to build lasting entrepreneurial capacity.

“Pitch Day is not the end of the programme but a signal of readiness to take on leadership and innovation roles in Ghana’s start-up ecosystem. The initiative provides long-term support to alumni ventures through advisory services, investor linkages and access to capital,” he noted.

Justin Tusoe, Trade and Development Officer of the Royal Netherlands, reiterated the embassy’s commitment to strengthen Ghana’s entrepreneurship ecosystems,  particularly for entrepreneurs in the cocoa and horticulture sectors, while describing the initiative as an investment in the future of Ghana.

He further expressed the embassy’s satisfaction with the achievement of the Orange Corners programme and its intense acceleration process designed to support and develop entrepreneurs in Ghana.

Addressing the entrepreneurs, Nana Yaa Afriyie Ofori-Koree, Head of Partnerships, Sustainability and CSR at Fidelity Bank, also reaffirmed the bank’s unwavering support to them.

She said: “ Fidelity Bank has supported over 200 entrepreneurs across eleven cohorts, with approximately GH¢31million disbursed to youth-led businesses under its Fidelity Young Entrepreneurs Initiative”.

This initiative, she noted, forms a core pillar of the bank’s small medium-sized enterprises development agenda.

The 10th cohort of entrepreneurs featured start-ups such as: Samuel Adjepon – Alt & Quint, Alex Afari – Defarmicists, Irene Lamptey – BG Gold, Eleselund Ewudzi-Sampson – BigSamps Market, Lindsay Adu – La Belle Farm, Laminu Issaka – Romilla Farms, and Iddi Mohammed Farid – Kodu Technologies.

Others were Prince Baffour Adjei – Moreplex Farms, Ruth Guribe – Sava Shea, Kwami Williams – True Farms, Yaa Birago – Soko Bags, Berilyn Wobil – CoopWings, Richmond Ampaabeng – DataMonk, and Patrick Annan – Express Med.

Since its inception, Orange Corners Ghana has accelerated 10 cohorts and continues to contribute to job creation, market development and export-led growth in Ghana’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Applications are currently open for Cohort 12, while entrepreneurs under Cohort 11 undergo acceleration.

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