About GEN in Ghana

GEN began operating in Ghana in 2008, when it organized the inaugural launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). GEN’s president, Jonathan Ortmans, was on hand to launch the campaign in Ghana. The earliest editions of GEW were rooted in inspirational activities that included five aside football competitions to drive team building, pitch competitions, hackathons, university seminars, and Startup Weekends – all to encourage Ghanaians to pursue entrepreneurship as potential career path. GEN partnered with Youth Enhancement International (YEI) to coordinate the campaigns in the early years, which grew rapidly year over year. Today, GEN Ghana, the official GEN affiliate led by Stephen Gyasi-Kwaw, leads the campaign each November and throughout the rest of the year serves as a premier platform for ecosystem integration, policy dialogue, and startup acceleration.

One of GEN’s earliest successes in Ghana traces back to the launch of Dropifi at Startup Weekend in Accra during GEW in 2011. Dropifi revolutionized customer engagement by replacing standard "Contact Us" web forms with an intelligent customer service widget. Developed by co-founders David Osei (CEO), Kamil Nabong (CPO), and Effah Philips Mensah (CTO), became a prominent African technology startup. In 2012, Dropifi won the Startup Open grand prize, a GEN competition for new firms with high-growth potential, which earned the founders a delegate trip to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC). The startup went on to become the first African company accepted into the Silicon Valley-based accelerator, 500 Startups (now 500 Global) — an early sign that Ghanaian innovation could compete on the world stage.

Over the following decade, GEW in Ghana evolved from an awareness campaign into the country’s largest entrepreneurship mobilization. By 2016, Ghana was coordinating localized events across multiple regions and in 2017, the campaign reached a political milestone when the Ministry of Business Development stepped in to open the campaign — integrating GEW into Ghana’s national economic development agenda. In 2021, International Advertising Association (IAA) World President and Chairman Joel Nettey added his voice to the campaign aimed at inspiring more Ghanian entrepreneurs.

More recently, the 2025 national campaign, organized by GEN Ghana, kicked off with the 5,000 Entrepreneurs March, “the largest entrepreneurship walk in the world.” The lineup of events throughout the month – innovation expos, startup pitch competitions, policy roundtables, and mentorship sessions, and practical artificial-intelligence training to small-business owners – culminated with a national entrepreneurship festival on November 21–23, 2025 organized in partnership with Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs Organization.

As GEN’s work in Ghana evolved, its engagement with the government deepened over time. Beyond the Ministry of Business Development’s role in launching GEW, a significant milestone came in August 2021, when Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia officially launched the University of Ghana Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programme (UGIEP). A partnership between GEN Ghana and the University of Ghana’s Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST) with the active support of the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), UGIEP is designed to accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship through six dedicated program areas. The program’s origins date to Ortmans’ first 2008 visit to Ghana when he recommended that inspiration be paired with structured education. Through UGIEP, GEN Ghana provides mentorship matching, leads product-development and innovation seminars, facilitates market access and investor introductions, and advises on updating university curricula and entrepreneurship programming.

In addition to its UGIEP work, GEN Ghana leads a series of activities strengthening the creative economy and delivering creative-arts skills training to more than 5,000 young people with support from the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre and Exim Bank Ghana. This work has drawn the attention of multiple organizations including the Recording Academy.

GEN has helped connect Ghanaian founders to global programs. Since its global launch in 2019, the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) – run by GEN and Monsha’at – has provided Ghana’s founders with access to training resources, mentorship, and exposure to investors. Sommalife, an agribusiness that supports smallholder producers and farming communities while promoting environmental conservation, reached the EWC Global Finals and placed third in the growth-stage category, winning $70,000.

GEN’s other work in Ghana is extensive.  For example, in 2024, the Africa Earth Observation Challenge, a member of GEN Space - GEN’s community for the space sector - selected Ghanaian startups to participate in a four-month investment-readiness program spanning startups from nine countries. Further, Startup Huddle - GEN’s peer-driven, mentor-supported meetup series - launched a chapter in Accra during Global Entrepreneurship Week, joining a global network of more than 80 chapters worldwide. GEN is also an active champion of women founders in Ghana where it partners with the British Council and supports the U.S.-backed Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE).

GEN maintains extensive relationships with key Ghanaian ecosystem stakeholders, including the Ministry of Business Development, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the University of Ghana, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Exim Bank Ghana, the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), a leading accelerator, the British Council, and the U.S. Embassy in Accra. Ghanaian entrepreneurs are regular participants in GEN’s global events and delegate communities.

GEN’s president, Jonathan Ortmans, has been a regular visitor to Ghana whether to mentor entrepreneurs at MEST, praise the University of Ghana and the local GEN team for designing the UGIEP program or simply to meet youth participating in Global Entrepreneurship Week campaigns. GEN’s ongoing mission in Ghana remains focused on connecting the country’s founders, universities, and policymakers to global capital, knowledge, and markets — building on Accra’s rise as a hub for high-impact entrepreneurship.