British Council in Ghana has held its second of 4 quarterly Mini TEDxSocialEntrepriseTalks dubbed ‘‘Investors or ‘Father Christmas?’ – Social entrepreneurs’ interaction with investors” on Friday, in, Accra. The full day event provided an opportunity for social enterprises who went through an application process to exhibit their products and services for free to interested guests who visited the British Council on the day of the event.
Another remarkable aspect of the event was the free opportunity for Social Enterprises which needed funding for their businesses and were ‘investment ready’ to ‘PITCH’ to REAL INVESTORS. The pitching session saw 11 social enterprises participating. The event was crowned with social discussions.
The dialogs focused on, why investors are not interested in financing social enterprises, how social enterprises can access financing from mainstream capital markets and accountability demands of investors.
Dr. Edward George, Country Head, Ecobank UK Representative Office & Head of Group Research – Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, in his presentation advised Social Enterprises to come up with disruptive ideas if they were to succeed and attract investors. He cited M–Pesa a mobile money transfer service in Kenya as an example of successful disruption in the Financial Technology market.
In his presentation, Mr. John Armah of Orios Consulting Group cautioned Social Enterprises against having visions which were too vague. He continued that in order to catch the eye of an investor, the problem that a social enterprise was trying to solve should be clearly defined. He also advised Social Entrepreneurs to think big from the beginning and copy the models of the bigger firms which had made it.
The talks were followed with an interactive panel discussion moderated by Hannah Acquah, Founder and CEO of TKC Africa.
The TEDxAccra led social enterprise event was held in partnership with SE Ghana and was supported by the British Council and Ghana Entrepreneurship Network.
Source: TEDxAccra/Africafeeds.com
