HOPin Academy holds two-day intensive entrepreneurial symposia in Tamale.

Zakaria Abdul-Hakim| Sanatu Zambang

On Tuesday, July 28 and Wednesday, July 29 respectively, HOPin academy gathered a number of youth and businesswomen in the Northern Region for a workshop at the Radach Lodge and Conference Centre in Tamale.

The workshop was part of the activities to duly launch the ‘Sports and Entrepreneurship for Economic Development’ (SEED) network. The SEED network is a partnership project between Ghana-based entrepreneurship ecosystem support organization, HOPin Academy, and Denmark based humanitarian organization, FANT.

SEED seeks to empower youth to advocate for better policies for doing entrepreneurship in northern Ghana, this will in the long run create a safer environment for entrepreneurship to thrive and reduce the poverty rate in the northern part of Ghana.


Welcoming participants to the day-one of the event, co-founder and director of HopIn academy, Maccarthy Mac-Gbathy advised on the need to be resilient as start-ups. He recalled times when HOPin academy was still coming up and did not have an office space. The director said they had to use people’s space for their meetings.


He said he was positive that by the goals of SEED, HOPin Academy and FANT will by next year empower at least, not less than 300 young entrepreneurs in Northern Ghana.
The event, which consisted of a series of panel discussions and break-out sessions, saw renowned business development experts and community development advocates engage with the audience extensively.


Ms. Janet during a panel discussion, highlighted one of the challenges faced by youth in this sector of the country to be lack of mentorship. Recounting her experience, Ms. Janet said due to lack of role models, it is usually very difficult for youth to develop their skills for a better future.


Mr. Amin Yahaya of the National Youth Authority and CEO of Samakose Enterprising Development also stated that the youth are challenged by inadequate personal development. According to him, personal development takes 60% of entrepreneurial development.


He advised that, as part of business development, the youth must devote much of their time to build their skill-base and plan vigorously. This he said, eases the journey than getting stuck later in the process.

One of the speakers; Mr. Ayuba Manan, also hinged his assertions on utilizing social media. He relented how some start-ups in the country are mismanaging their social media handles, which they could have channeled to sweep more customers.

Other discussions surrounding business development and advocacy were made in the event. A break-out session was also held in groups of tens facilitated by team members of the SEED project. Participants asked questions which were responded to by the HOPin Academy team.


Ms. Raha Zakaria thanked both speakers and participants for their time and mentioned she is looking forward to more collaborations when the programme commences.

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