The Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC) has inaugurated a new office and incubation hub in the Northern Regional capital, Tamale to expand agribusiness services and targeted policy initiatives to improve local economic governance.

The office, located at Kanvili in the Sagnarigu Municipality, Tamale is an apartment with offices, washrooms, kitchenette and a conference hall.

The KIC set up the office with support from the Ghana Market Systems and Resilience (MSR) Activity, a USAID-funded programme under the Feed the Future Initiative.

Mr Joe Mensah, Board Chairman of KIC, speaking at the inauguration ceremony said KIC seeks to give distinct attention to agriculture, and poised to invest appropriately in the sector to promote food security.

Mr Mensah indicated that Northern Ghana is a location to scale up agricultural investments to create employment for the youth, and called on community leaders to support the initiative.

Mr Mensah, thus, said, “The KIC, after exploring oil, seeks to explore more sectors, in partnership with stakeholders to engage more females as well as the youth”.

Transforming the Agriculture Value Chain

Mr Benjamin Gyan-Kesse, Executive Director of KIC, noted that the centre is committed to transforming the agriculture value chain by equipping the youth with ready market skills that would empower them economically to contribute to community development.

Gyan-Kesse stated that the MSR Activity, which seeks to ensure more resilient markets within the agricultural sector, led to the setup of the incubation hub to reach young entrepreneurs within 17 districts across four regions in the north.

The conference hall of the newly inaugurated office was named after its Board Chair, Mr Joe Mensah, in recognition of his contribution to the organisation.

As part of the inaugural activities, staff members of KIC visited business start-up centres in the region.

Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister, lauded the initiatives of the KIC in the agricultural sector, women empowerment and capacity building spaces.

Alhassan Saibu said the Inaugurated office would deepen KIC’s partnership with key stakeholders and provide entrepreneurial skills to enhance the government development policies.

Alhassan Saibu urged the youth to seize the opportunity by venturing into agribusiness to become economically viable.

The Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC) invests in young entrepreneurs and small businesses who have big ideas and want to see their country grow. The KIC was established in Ghana in 2016 with programs focused on inspiring and empowering young entrepreneurs to drive change in their own country. Since its inception, the KIC has focused on innovation in agriculture – the country’s most important sector and largest employer.

More than 600 aspiring entrepreneurs have participated in KIC Ghana programs, resulting in the creation of more than a dozen promising start-ups that have gone on to secure seed funding, additional business training, and capital investment.

In 2021, Kosmos Energy re-established KIC Ghana as an independent non-profit organization so it could take advantage of new funding sources that would enable the program to grow. As part of a new multi-year partnership, the Mastercard Foundation agreed to invest approximately US$16 million over four years in KIC Ghana programming.

With this new financial support, KIC Ghana aims to expand operations and offer more training to a greater number of young entrepreneurs in every region of the country.