Senior Vice President of Kosmos Energy and Head of Ghana Business Unit, Mr Joe Mensah has disclosed that his outfit has helped set up some 14 companies in three years through its Kosmos Innovation Centre initiative.

According to him, the company has currently opened an incubation hub to house some 25 companies involved in innovation technologies to solve societal problems and improve living conditions.

“We started about 4 years ago and we brought in people who applied and came in as individuals and by the third month they had formed groups of three to six people which ended being companies in the end.

“They presented their innovative business ideas, did market research and we critiqued them and by the ninth month, they made their final presentation and we selected a top two that we invested US$100,000 in them for another 12 months where we natured and refined them before they went into business,” he explained.

Speaking to GhanaWeb Friday, November 22 at the NiBs Ghana Innovation Summit, he noted that in the first year, the Kosmos Innovation Centre generated two companies, one namely the ‘Trotro Tractor’ where farmers across the country could order a tractor through a short-code and paid for via a mobile money transaction.

“It has been so successful that now they have been attracted to go to Zimbabwe to open a segment there and since that period, we have formed other companies through the same process”

“We have had some 500 entrepreneurs going through the Kosoms Innovation Centre and we have generated about 200,000 jobs and adding this year, we have invested US$400,000 of seed funding for these individuals along with networking opportunities,” he added.

He revealed that this year, the Kosmos Innovation Centre has developed 11 companies that could potentially go out and form solid business.




NiBs Ghana Innovation Summit

The NiBs Ghana Innovation Summit, which is the first edition of its kind brought together panellists and experts in Academia, Energy and Business Innovation to dialogue on the best possible solutions to improve the conditions of local communities, civil society, public and private sector through the use of innovation.

Some panellists at the event were; Professor Atuahene-Gima, Founder and President of the NiBS, Mr Joe Mensah, Vice President of Kosmos Energy and Head of Ghana Business Unit and Mr Eugene Boadu, a Strategy and Corporate Expert.