The goal of “Tech E.I.G.” is to challenge and redirect the African youth, especially the Ghanaian youth with interest in emerging technologies, to change their thinking from just being ordinary consumers of technology into becoming Technology Entrepreneurs; hence reducing unemployment through their own initiatives. This platform will give them the opportunity to think big and it will wake up sleeping innovators amongst the African youth; and therefore help reduce unemployment.
The focus population in this project is the educated Ghanaian youth, “economically hungry” but with keen interest in emerging technologies. This population is generally very energetic and ready to roll their sleeves to work.
At the core of this project is innovation; not innovation to go into archives but for DOERS to implement them with the support of Tech E.I.G. We provide the focus population with the right framework and guidance to stir up the talents in the youth with the “Let’s do it” attitude. We seek to achieve this by bringing the youths with complementary skills together to form exploratory tech start-up teams to at least try the processes and techniques Tech E.I.G. is advocating. The youth will leverage the skills of each other and in consultation with subject matter experts; they will seek marketable solutions to societal problems. The underlining understanding is that innovation leads to job creation and it will help address the unemployment challenge in Ghana.
Why can’t the educated Ghanaian youth, with keen interest in emerging technologies, go past having ideas and set up tech start-up firms to create jobs?
Tech E.I.G. seeks to take a large group of the youth, from the focus population, and in a coordinated manner, churn a technology focus engine going, by way of collaborative experimentation of ideas, which will lead to tech start-up firms. It was through “great ideas” that Michael Dell and Mark Zuckerberg, for example, created millions of jobs. The Ghanaian youth need the motivation and direction to move forward their “ideas”; this is the course that Tech E.I.G seeks to champion: to help the youth use their own initiatives to place themselves as employers and hire others by turning great marketable ideas into reality with the “Let’s do it” attitude. This will help remove the youth from unsavory activities and occupy them with activities poised with great potential.
Tech E.I.G. is going to use the “Let’s do it” attitude, where the youth meet, “think up” together, research and go through the processes and techniques that Tech E.I.G. is coaching; and then create a minimum viable product (MVP) to show to investors and/or Tech E.I.G. management. This project, seeks to bring the educated Ghanaian youth into teams to leverage the skills of each other and to consult with other subject matter experts to go after marketable solutions to societal problems. So regardless of the education and training, this project is to rally the focus population to help grow the private sector through innovation.
Some objectives of this project are to introduce the fundamentals of technology entrepreneurship to the focus population and to excite, coach and guide them in tech entrepreneurship. It is also intended to build and maintain momentum in the youth for this project. It is imperative to assure them that when a great and marketable idea is generated, there will be financial support to take them through from the “idea” to the implementation stage. To implement the objectives of this project and to achieve its goal, the project will seek venture capitalists and investors as standby financiers to assure the participating youth teams of financial support for marketable ideas.
Some of the positive experiences expected to be derived from the implementation of this project activities will be reduced migration of our youth, especially to Europe and the Americas. The desired change among the focus population is to see them as executives of profitable technology start-up firms through their own initiatives, thus, reducing unemployment by hiring their peers and removing the negative consequences associated with having a large unemployed youth population. This project will also bring to light the underpinnings of why the Ghanaian youth lack the drive to move forward great ideas and it will eventually lead to awakening the sleeping innovators amongst our youth. As a result of this project, there will be established publicized institutional approaches to drive the Ghanaian youth to think big and to innovate. The government, investors and other stakeholders, will also benefit by way of taxes, return on investment and reduction in crime.