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GB.RSA.11.0004
Image by cresi-africa
Hand-painted advertising on the wall of a small internet café in central Johannesburg, South Africa, on April 19, 2011.
Accra, Ghana - January 6th 2012
Image by VC4Africa
The first ever VC4Africa Meetup in Accra took place at the plush Rhapsodys Pub & Restaurant (located at the Accra Mall) on Friday the 6th of January, 2012. The event was a huge success.
In all, about 65 old and young Entrepreneurs (most from the technology side) and angel investors attended to meet-up and share ideas on ventures being developed and created in Ghana and Africa as a whole
The meet-up started with an informal introduction by event host; Makafui Ayimey who helped put in a lot of time and energy into organizing the event. He explained the main ideas of the VC4Africa Meetup module which is:
- Networking and sharing ideas on viable ventures from Ghana and Africa
- Creating platforms for Entrepreneurs, Investors and Start-ups and also
- Building Africa through networking.
It was the first time Entrepreneurs and Investors were meeting unofficially to dialogue, meet-up in person and also network. A lot of the discussions were focused on the various projects each of the young entrepreneurs were working on and also getting feedback/advice from themselves and the older entrepreneurs.
The format of the event was splendid as everybody who came was very pleased with the unofficial setup which took the unconference form just like Barcamps… Even though there were seats by the bar, most people were busily connecting with names and projects they’ve seen online and were happily chatting the night away.
Herman Chinery-Hesse, popularly known as “African Bill Gate” was at the event to also meet-up and network, offer his advice to the upcoming entrepreneurs and just hang-out with the crowd. He’s got a remarkable story indeed. He is one of those people that makes you feel like you can do anything with nothing. That’s because Herman believes in African style solutions for uniquely African problems.
In an interview he lauded the idea of this type of unofficial Meetups and also suggested, the organizers keep up with it and also organize it once a month. He also stressed on the young entrepreneurs to develop solutions to African problems by saying;
“Europeans and Americans don’t have power failures and bandwidth problems, so Africans can’t copy first world solutions and expect them to work here.”
Spotted at the meet-up were the following; Eric Osiakwan – Director (Internet Research), Herman Chinery-Hesse – Chairman (SOFTtribe Ltd), Foster Ofosu – Founder (Africa Works), Tim Akinbo - Founder (TimbaObjects Company ), Derrydean Dadzie – Co-founder (DreamOval Ltd), Ato Ulzen-Appiah – co-founder (Museke) and Edward Amartey-Tagoe – co-founder (NandiMobile Ltd).
A couple of Ghanaian bloggers were also there to listen and share with others, their views on the entrepreneurial and technology scene currently making the news in the country.
At exactly 21:00 GMT, the event came to a close but a few people stayed behind for awhile. Most of the conversations right after was manly on; how soon the next meet-up will be organized and if there were any special requirements.
