Stanford Seed Transformation Network Ghana is set to host the third edition of its annual flagship Business and Leadership Conference on 22nd October, 2020 to empower businesses to embrace changes and seek solutions that will ensure business sustainability and success despite the COVID-19 challenges.

This year’s conference is under the theme "Embracing forced change within diverse cultures" with a focus on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and its implications for businesses. It will be streamed online on Facebook, YouTube and Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Renowned and experienced business leaders such as Dr. Tony Oteng-Gyasi – CEO, Tropical Cable and Conductor Ltd, Nana Dr. Michael Agyekum Addo – CEO, Mikaddo Holdings, Ms. Esther A. N. Cobbah – CEO, Stratcomm Africa and Mr.

David Ofosu-Dorte – Senior Partner, AB & David will share their experiences on how they have leveraged cultural challenges and differences to scale their businesses over the years.

The conference is open to all Stanford Seed Transformation Network members, the general public especially entrepreneurs, government officials, media, and the entire business community who can participate in the conference by registering with the link https://forms.gle/uMijHVeig5siZMa99.

Mrs. Linda Yaa Ampah, President of the Stanford Seed Transformation Network, Ghana and Founder of Cadling Fashions and KAD Manufacturing LTD, was excited about the upcoming conference which has been enabled by new technologies despite COVID-19.

She was confident that through the conference, participants will take home new mindsets, approaches and pragmatic solutions to transform businesses.

She said the theme for the conference is very critical explaining that “There are concerns about the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and its impact on Ghanaian businesses.

We are therefore seeking to use this conference to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, information, experience and skills among stakeholders in business to brace ourselves for the challenges ahead in this COVID-19 era”.

“The AfCFTA secretariat is targeting January, 2021 for the commencement of the implementation of the Pan African free trade agreement following its postponement due to the outbreak of the corona virus.

It is imperative that Ghanaian businesses ready themselves for the benefits that AfCFTA brings during COVID-19 and post COVID-19, a pandemic which is a major challenge for many businesses”, she said.