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How Startup Founders Are Psychologically Different From Everyone Else

September 29, 2019

It takes a certain kind of person to create a startup company. Not everyone can stomach the drought in income, the financial risk that comes with creating a company and the responsibility of hiring employees with an uncertain future. Except, nobody really has a good idea of what kind of person it does take to make an entrepreneur, says William Kerr, a professor at Harvard Business School.

Nimit Sawhney is the co-founder and CEO of Boston-based startup Voatz — Nimit Sawhney, co-founder and CEO of Boston-based startup Voatz

“For a long time, we could only study entrepreneurs through case examples like a Steve Jobs or an Andrew Carnegie. We didn’t really have systematic data that allowed us to understand who entrepreneurs were,” Kerr says.

Then Kerr got an opportunity to study a large set of entrepreneurs — after he met Tim Rowe, the founder of the Cambridge Innovation Center, or the CIC, a startup incubator in Cambridge, Mass.

Rowe let Kerr ask thousands of people at the CIC questions about their attitudes and personalities. “That let us create a very large dataset,” Kerr says, “making headway on connecting [certain] occupations to different types of personality traits.”

Kerr published those results in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month.

WBUR spoke with Kerr about his research, and what he learned about the people who start startups.

What did you learn about entrepreneurs, and how are they different from everyone else?

The most powerful findings connect to what’s been long suspected but really hard to nail down: the attitudes that entrepreneurs have towards risk. One of the basic beliefs is that entrepreneurs have to be more willing to face uncertainty and put a little bit more on the line than wage workers. So, we asked them if they wanted to collect a five dollar Amazon gift card or enter a lottery for a $2,000 prize.

About 55% of baseline employees entered the lottery, and more than 70% of entrepreneurs entered the lottery. In general terms, entrepreneurs were 20% to 40% more likely to self-report higher risk tolerance or engage in these small gambles relative to company employees.

Entrepreneurs were quite different from other people in another measure: They felt they controlled the outcomes in their lives and felt more capable of delivering certain outcomes to a higher degree.

But when it comes to baseline personality traits like how open you are or how conscientious you are, entrepreneurs interestingly did not have substantial differences.

What does that mean about these people? Entrepreneurs are basically the same as everyone else except they are more confident about their abilities and more willing to swallow risk?

You could say that. It could even go into overconfidence. Just because you have a greater sense of control, that isn’t always a good thing. In some cases, market forces or the weather do, in fact, shape outcomes more than people want to believe they did.

It does suggest that the people that have these beliefs, correctly founded or not, are more willing to strike out on their own, create a business to follow their dreams, and believe they can beat their competitors in whatever market area they’re entering.

I’ve worked with many entrepreneurs coming out of Harvard Business School, and I’ve seen they’re willing to tolerate risk. But they also do everything in their power to reduce risk as quickly as they can. They don’t like risk. They’re not gamblers, but they’re able to operate in an uncertain environment.

I don’t believe there’s a single entrepreneurial type, though. Entrepreneurs begin their businesses for a variety of reasons. You have some that started their business after their kids left home, and you have dropouts from MIT.

Was there anything in the study that showed entrepreneurs were very different from other kinds of company leaders?

One thing we saw in the survey data was that entrepreneurs are still higher than the full-time, long-term CEO of an organization in terms of risk tolerance or belief in oneself.

We often think about Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs and people who guided their companies through various growth states as examples of entrepreneurs. But that’s actually the exception rather than the rule. Usually the CEO leader of a company is different from the founder.

So, maybe some people are better at stepping in once a business is already created and being able to run that well, grow it, make it more efficient. Others might be better at sparking up new ideas and testing things out.

What does this mean for people who are not yet entrepreneurs but weighing the decision to start a company? Will having these traits make you more likely to succeed?

Yeah, we can’t say something that’s performance related. Is it the ability to tolerate risk or the kind of belief in oneself something that leads people to make poor choices? Or is it something that’s correlated with positive outcomes? I wish I could answer those questions because they’re all, of course, interesting and important to the choices people are making to become entrepreneurs.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Nimit Sawhney is the co-founder and CEO of Boston-based startup Voatz. (Interview led by Zeninjor Enwemeka of the WBUR)

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world

Nigeria’s Trade Dispute with Benin Worsens

September 28, 2019

The disagreement between Nigerian government and the Beninese government that led to the closure of Nigeria’s borders has taken a turn for the worse as efforts made within the week for another emergency meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and President Patrice Talon fell through. Officials from both countries tried to have both leaders have an impromptu face to face meeting on the sidelines of the just concluded United Nations General Assembly in New York within the week, but a last minute hitch thwarted the efforts.

President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce Muda Yusuf

A top Nigerian diplomat who spoke with this Correspondent on condition of anonymity said that the Nigerian government is not warmed to another meeting after the initial meeting between both leaders during the TICAD in Japan failed to achieve desired results. The diplomat said that the belief in many government circles in Nigeria is that the Beninese government is aiding and abetting the smuggling racketeering going on within the border area. This he said is reason why the Nigerian government does not want to have another meeting until its demands during the earlier meeting is met.

This border dispute coming two months after the signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) which both countries were evidently reluctant to sign raises eyebrows on the dangers facing the implementation of the deal. The border blockade which analysts have warned is having a ripple effects across the West African region has caused factories and traders to struggle to import key raw materials and having to use alternative routes for their exports.

Speaking on the dangers of the border closure the President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce Muda Yusuf said that the development is hurting businesses because more than 80% of West African cross-border trade is by road, the cost is quite enormous and the closure is not sustainable.

Bloomberg sources are quoted as saying that the impact of the dispute is being felt as far afield as Ghana, which is separated from Nigeria by Benin and Togo. Manufacturers have complained about the impact on costs, John Defor, research director at the Association of Ghana Industries has said.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.

Prof. Okey Oramah Wins the 2019 African Renaissance and Diaspora Network Private Sector Development Award

The President of African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Prof. Benedict Okechukwu Oramah yesterday at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, received the 2019 African Renaissance and Diaspora Network Private Sector Development Award. The award which celebrates leadership for and from the African continent in pursuit of the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 was presented by the African Renaissance and Diaspora Network (ARDN) during the “Africa: Open for Business Summit” on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Afreximbank President Prof. Benedict Oramah displays the 2019 African Renaissance and Diaspora Network Private Sector Development Award he received at the United Nations Headquarters. With him were Dr. Djibril Diallo, CEO of ARDN (left) and Constance Newman, Chairman of ARDN.

In a citation preceding the award, Constance Newman, Chairman of ARDN and a former United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, said that Prof. Oramah was selected as the 2019 recipient in recognition of his exemplary leadership in the fields of trade, trade finance and economics, and as a scholar and prolific writer.

“As the leader of Afreximbank, you have not only overseen the strengthening of trade activities throughout Africa, you have also played pivotal roles in the application of the Bank’s expertise to support humanitarian emergency relief programmes,” she said.

Ms. Newman also cited his achievement in the “development of the Bank’s Health and Medical Tourism Programme, working with international partners to foster the emergence of world class medical facilities and research centers across Africa designed to improve life expectancy as well as stem the outflow of billions in foreign exchange”. In this way, Afreximbank dramatically echoes the ideals of the United Nations and its Strategic Development Goals, she concluded.

In an acceptance speech, Prof. Oramah said that he saw the award as a call to action to do more to support Africa’s effort to achieve economic growth, arguing that Africa needed economic independence as political independence was not enough. He said that the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was an attempt to enable Africa to achieve economic independence, announcing that Afreximbank planned to disburse about $25 billion toward intra-African trade during its current strategic plan period. Afreximbank had also set aside $1 billion as an adjustment facility to assist countries that might be impacted negatively by the takeoff of the AfCFTA to enable them adjust in an orderly manner, added the President.

Earlier, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the 74th United Nations General Assembly, said that Africa was central to the world and was always open for business. He invited people from around the world to come and trade with the continent. Also receiving award at the ceremony was Epsy Campbell Barr, First Vice-President of Costa Rica.

ARDN is an international non-governmental organisation affiliated with the United Nations with the mission to accelerate the attainment of African renaissance by advocating for and supporting United Nations objectives and by mobilizing the passion of governments, educators, artists, intellectuals, the private sector, civil society and youth, using the power of art, sport and culture for creating a better world.

The Africa: Open for Business Summit was co-organized by ARDN and the African Union, the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations, the United Nations Department of Public Information, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, UN-Habitat, UNDP and the Global Partnerships Forum.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.

Young Rwandans to Gain from Strategic Partnership in Tourism and Hospitality

A new strategic partnership between the Rwanda Development Board and the Mastercard Foundation under the Hanga Ahazaza initiative is expected to help young Rwandans acquire critical skills for the tourism and hospitality sectors of the economy. The Partnership announced yesterday at the World Tourism Day will build critical links between young job seekers and employers, work with employers to develop skills training programs for young employees, and identify skills gaps in Rwanda’s tourism and hospitality sector.

Chief Tourism Officer of the Rwanda Development Board Belise Kariza

Hanga Ahazaza, meaning “create the future”, is a consortium of partners from the education, development, and private sectors. Working together, the initiative supports small businesses and entrepreneurs in the tourism and hospitality sector through increased access to financial services and training, and by connecting them to young people who have the skills needed to be successful employees.

African Cocoa Farmers to Benefit Through IFC, Cargill Partnership

African Cocoa farmers especially those in cooperatives will benefit from a new initiative aimed at strengthening cocoa producing cooperatives and their communities which includes Coop Academy 2.0.. The initiative launched by Cargill and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group will add 40 additional cooperatives to the academy, bringing the total to 120 cooperatives reached through training and tools to improve their cocoa business improve sustainability and increase profitability.

The Cargill Coop Academy, first established in 2013, was the first of its kind in the cocoa sector. The model provides cooperative leaders with the management skills to improve daily operations of their organizations, leading to a more professional, efficient and successful business. In 2014, Cargill partnered with IFC and others to scale the program to reach over 350 cooperative leaders.

Speaking on the development the Managing Director of Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate in West Africa, Mr. Lionel Soulard, said that the cooperative model has proven to be an exceptional method to bring cocoa farmers and their communities lasting benefits. He noted that by gaining invaluable skills and tools to professionalize their business, “we see them independently driving impactful sustainability projects that bring meaningful change to their communities and the cocoa sector at large “he added.

Kenyans Will Proceed With New Sh1000 Notes As Court Rules Jomo Statue Is Not A Portrait, New Notes Legal

In what is a like a significant landmark victory, Kenyans will would be proceeding to have new Sh1000 notes by September 30. A Kenyan High Court has ruled that the new bank notes are legal and that Kenya’s first President, Jomo Kenyatta’s statue on them is not a portrait. The court also declined to extend the expiry date of old Sh1,000 notes.

Here Is All You Need To Know

On June 4, two cases challenging the release of new bank notes into circulation were filed before the High Court.
The petitions filed separately by activist Okiya Omtatah and East Africa Legislative Assembly Member of Parliament Simon Mbugua said the image of a statue of President Jomo are in violation of the Constitution and should be removed from the new denominations.
According to the petitioners, although Kenyatta’s portrait is captured as a part of Kenyatta International Conference Center (KICC), it is a representation of the former President’s image, whose inclusion is illegal.

“The petitioners posit that the new design Kenyan currency bank notes are unconstitutional and, therefore, invalid, null and void, because they violate Article 231(4) of the Constitution to the extent that they bear the portrait of the late President Jomo Kenyatta,” the petitions read.

On August 8, Omtatah also sued Attorney General Kihara Kariuki for publishing new laws to regulate circulation of the new currencies.
Omtatah argued that the AG sneaked in the new law after realising that the Central Bank of Kenya illegally introduced the new generation currencies, and when the court was at an advanced stage of determining legality of the new currencies.
He wanted the court to suspend a legal notice published by the AG, pending determination of his suit over the new currencies.
The activist challenged the laws relied on by CBK to introduce the new currencies and have founding President Jomo Kenyatta’s portrait on the notes.

Here Is How The New Currency Policy Has Pushed Some Kenyans To Tight Corners

Under Kenya’s new currency regime, some of the country’s currency would be replaced with a new generation of banknotes. To that effect, Kenyans must return their old 1,000 shillings ($10; £8) notes to banks before 1 October, 2019 in a bid to fight money laundering, counterfeits, and corruption).

To effectively implement the new policy, the Central Bank of Kenya has issued some tough guidelines on how to exchange the old Sh1000 currency for new notes.

Read also: What Kenyan Businesses Need To Know About The New Currency Policy In Place In The Country

To this effect, those without a bank account are not able to exchange more than Sh1 million of old currency with the new notes without CBK’s approval.
Even with a new bank account, it is reported as a suspicious activity if the holder all of a sudden credits his account with more than Sh1 million, or seeks to exchange it in cash and walk away without proper documentation on proof of source of funds.

There is an alleged feeling of desperation among those suspected to be hoarding money acquired illegally and who are hence unable to bank it as they cannot openly declare its source. Such individuals are faced with the challenge of losing the money when it is devalued on 1st October as Kenya officially moves on to the new currency as is dictated by the 2010 Constitution, reports Kenya’s Investment Company Soko Directory.

New Guidelines Warning Stakeholders By CBK

In its most recent circular, KCB warned it would take action against any commercial bank that fails to, neglects or omits to comply with relevant regulations.

The regulator reminded lenders of their obligation under the Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2009, saying they should undertake due diligence on customers’ transactions and ensure effective monitoring of all accounts and transactions.

In March 2019, CBK also directed all commercial banks, microfinance institutions, and mortgage finance companies to nominate “an independent and competent external third party” to evaluate the institution’s compliance to anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism programs.

The appointed parties evaluate the institution’s customer due to diligence measures, its risk assessment for cases of money-laundering and terrorism financing, check the firm’s internal controls against such financial crimes, and their monitoring process.

The fight against money laundering was one of the Kenya ’s reasons to phase out old Sh1000 notes, which CBK said was becoming increasingly easier to imitate.

Speaking during the Madaraka Day celebrations, CBK governor Patrick Njoroge said the new Sh1,000 notes will help address the growing concerns of illicit financial flows in the country.

The Most Direct Implication of This Is That By October This Year, All Those In Possession of The Old Ksh1000 Notes Will Not Be Able To Use Them

This is directive of the Central Bank of Kenya. CBK governor Patrick Njoroge also revealed that 100 million pieces of the old Sh1,000 note had been returned by end of August 2019 out of 217 million pieces or Sh217 billion in circulation.

This means the public has less than 3 days to exchange some of the remaining bulk.

With the deadline fast approaching, businesses have started blocking usage of the old Sh1000 notes.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world

Report Shows Togo Ranks Top On Africa’s Visa Openness Index

Mauritius, Benin, Rwanda, Guinea Bissau, and Togo are the five most open countries in Africa, in terms of mobility and free movement. This was disclosed in a report recently released by e-commerce platform Jumia.

The pan-African startup bases its ranking on the visa openness index published by the World Tourism Organization (WTO) in its third Hospitality Report Africa.

Here Is All You Need To Know

The index is calculated by assessing the percentage of people affected by the absence of visa requirement, visa on arrival, e-visa and traditional visa.
Togo’s openness index is 71.4 which enables the country to rapidly increase the number of international tourist arrivals.

The overall global tourism numbers for 2017.

UNWTO

Jumia, looking at the various figures, urges African governments to suppress visa requirement for fellow African citizens. Also, these governments should, according to the startup, work with the private sector to “launch campaigns to promote their local travel destinations and touristic offers to attract more regional tourists,” said Estelle Verdier, Jumia’s Travel Manager.

In 2018, travel and tourism were among the main forces that drove the growth of African economies.
They contributed to 8.5% of their GDP, generating $194.2 billion. According to the 2019 Hospitality Africa Report, Africa is the second most dynamic continent, in terms of hospitality.
The sector recorded, according to the document, a growth of 5.6% (against a global average increase of 3.9%). It comes behind the Asia-Pacific region.
The number of international tourists who flocked to the African continent over the period reviewed was 67 million (+7%), spending there $58.5 billion (9.6%) of total exports.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world

To Solve its Power Distribution Problems, Africa Needs to Modernise and Decentralise its Grid

September 27, 2019

Grid modernisation, specifically the deployment of microgrids in rural areas, provides a promising strategy writes Anastacia Walsh.

Electrification is an on-going and foundational investment, and a necessary one to realize all modern-day development objectives. Despite bullish policies, the fact remains that over 640 million Africans lack access to electricity. The effect of this is apparent. It impedes economic growth; it inhibits the advancements of self-reliant local communities, and it threatens national security. African governments are beginning to rethink their electrification plans. Grid modernisation, specifically the deployment of microgrids in rural areas, provides a promising strategy.

Anastasia Walsh, legal consultant that focuses on African energy access matters

The Centralized Utility Model Is Not Adequately Serving Africa’s Needs

Attempting to replicate the centralized utility models implemented in the U.S. and Europe has not succeeded in improving energy access across the continent. Despite this, it seems many governments and utilities wrongly maintain the position that the expansion of the traditional grid infrastructure is the solution. In areas where communities have access to the central grid, they still have to supplement the intermittency of the power with diesel generators. On the flip side, the utilities are financially strained because they are unable to collect revenues from their customers. The low rate of revenue collection is due to the unsustainable tariffs the providers impose on customers as a result of the political pressure exerted on them. This results in the utilities being unable to finance upgrades in infrastructure, further exacerbating the issues.

Those who favor the expansion of the central grid as the most effective means of increasing rates of electrification face the challenge of reconciling two contradicting positions. The first position is that increasing access requires lowering tariffs. The second position is that lowering tariffs will intensify the financial stress utilities are currently under. Neither of these positions is sustainable. The incorporation of microgrids into a hybrid system of electrification is the best solution.

Grid Modernisation and Microgrids

Microgrids are small-scale power grids that run on a combination of solar, wind, or biomass or fossil fuels to provide reliable power. They operate either independently from the main grid or can be synched to it at the same voltage to shift the energy and respond to peaks and troughs in supply and demand. This ensures there is no interruption in power supply, allowing communities to be more energy independent by cutting costs and providing reliable energy access.

Productive Use of Energy (PUE) is Key

The off-grid solar lighting market is thriving thanks to the falling prices of renewable energy equipment. The solar lighting market has been further bolstered by widespread deployment of pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) payment systems that utilize mobile-money technology. These solar devices provide sufficient generation for low consumption needs like household lighting, charging cell phones, and the use of small household appliances. Despite its attractiveness to householders, off-grid solar lighting is currently not scalable. The deployment of microgrids will be necessary to provide the adequate output required to power commercial businesses, hospitals, schools. Demand for electricity from small industry and business, which is classified as the productive use of energy will determine the success of microgrids; without this demand, the deployment of microgrids will not be financially viable. Ensuring the Productive Use of Energy enhances the economic and social development impacts of microgrids and rural electrification in the wider context.

Leading The Way: Kenya and Nigeria

Africa is forecast to be the world’s fastest-growing market for microgrids at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 27%, representing 1,145MW by 2027. Within the continent, Kenya and Nigeria are at the forefront of the grid modernisation revolution.

With strong renewable energy and microgrid policies, Kenya has doubled its energy access rates since 2014. To reach its goal of 100% electrification by 2030, Kenya should implement a hybrid-decentralized system. This entails a combination of traditional utility distribution and the deployment of an extensive network of microgrids. The prevalent use of mobile money in the region, if harnessed correctly will provide the best means of collecting payment of energy bills. Nigeria similarly has ambitions to drastically increase their generating capacity by 2030 with 30% of that planned to be from renewable sources. Microgrids are expected to provide 5.3GW of this increased generation capacity.

Nation-Specific Policies

To improve energy access, African nations should consider incorporating the following into their policies: First, targeting rural populations for distributed energy via microgrids; then implementing low-cost and low-barrier permitting and licensing rules with standardized quality control and operating requirements; and finally ensuring that electrification strategies are financially viable.

Decentralized/ hybrid solutions such as microgrids are the most cost-effective solution. The PAYGO business model provides an efficient means for project developed to collect revenues from their investments. Despite the tendency to paint all sub-Saharan countries with the same brush, as it relates to electrification rates, this is especially inappropriate. When it comes to implementing electrification and grid modernisation strategies, policymakers should consider their countries unique geography, natural resources, climate, population density, and power demand patterns.

Anastasia Walsh is a legal consultant that focuses on African energy access matters.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.

UNICEF Innovation Fund Is Looking To Invest US$100k In Startups With Innovative Learning, Job Matching Solutions

For startups who are looking to solve education or employment problems confronting the society, UNICEF Innovation Fund looking to make equity-free investments of up to US$100,000 in them, with a hope that this will bridge the learning or connectivity gaps towards employability.

What UNICEF Innovation Fund Is Looking For

Applicants must be working on open source technology solutions — or willing to be open source — and will be contacted with a request for proposal if they are shortlisted for funding.

The latest call for applications, which is open until September 30 and relevant to startups registered in one of UNICEF’s programme countries, is open to startups that are innovating in the spaces of digital connectivity, remedial learning, remote learning and work, and job matching for young people and adolescents.

UNICEF has previously rolled out a host of individual funds in recent years, including ones for blockchain, VR, drone and data science startups, and backed the likes of South Africa’s 9Needs and Tunisia’s Utopixar.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world

New Programme To Support Agritech Startups In Ethiopia Launched

Good news for agritech startups in Ethiopia. OCP Africa and Morocco-based Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) have entered into a strategic partnership to start impulse start-up acceleration program to build linkages between corporations and startups using Agritech solutions in Ethiopia.

“Following the success of the Impulse program in Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast, OCP Africa is making a last stop in Ethiopia, to convene with key stakeholders from the agriculture, entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems,” OCP Africa announced in a statement.

Here Is All You Need To Know

The Impulse program is a 12-week acceleration program dedicated to innovative startups in the fields of Agritech, Biotech, Mining tech and Materials Science & Nano Engineering.
Working in partnership with OCP Group, UM6P, Mass Challenge and their ecosystems, Impulse uses an impact-focused model to help entrepreneurs take their startups to the next level.

“The agricultural transformation in Ethiopia represents a unique opportunity for Agritech start-ups,” said Mr. Mehdi Filani, OCP Ethiopia Country Director. “We believe the Impulse start-up acceleration program can add value to develop Ethiopia’s agriculture sector, through innovative technologies,” he said.

Who The Programme Is Targeting

The Impulse program targets start-ups operating in fields related to the value chain of OCP Group and UM6P’s research agenda to help Africa’s agriculture sector increase its productivity in a sustainable manner.
The Impulse program will aim to offer opportunities for startups to accelerate their development including mentoring and coaching, access to potential business opportunities, study trips to the ecosystems of Boston and Lausanne, and a $250,000 cash prize to be shared between winning start-ups on the demo day.

Mr. Adnane Alaoui Soulimani, Impulse Program Director, expressed his enthusiasm about the opportunity to present the Impulse Accelerator to Ethiopian entrepreneurs.

“Impulse can play a significant role in the acceleration of innovative technologies that are transforming agri-businesses and smallholder farming techniques in Ethiopia, a country where over eighty percent of the population is engaged in agriculture,” he said.

What OCP Group Does

OCP Africa is a subsidiary of OCP Group is a leading global provider of phosphate and its derivatives with almost 100 years of experience. Based in Morocco, OCP Africa, was created to work hand-in-hand with farmers to contribute to unlocking Africa’s vast agricultural potential, in 2016.

OCP noted in the statement that it produces fertilizer solutions customized to local conditions and crop needs, and works with partners in many different African governments, non-profits and private enterprises to connect farmers to agricultural services, knowledge and resources they need in order to prosper.

With a presence across the continent, OCP further noted that it understands the diversity and complex needs of Africa’s soils, and is committed to offering the right fertilizer products at the right time, in the right place, at the right price.

OCP Group claims in the statement it is working with the Ethiopian government to jointly develop a USD 3.7 billion fertilizer platform in the country. OCP is currently supplying 100% of Ethiopia’s demand of phosphate fertilizers; granting timely access to high quality and customized fertilizers for Ethiopian farmers.

Beyond the supply of fertilizers, OCP states it is contributing to the transformation of the Ethiopia’s agricultural sector through several programs such as the development of cash crops, horticulture, livestock and blending units.

How to Apply

Interested startups can visit Impulse Start-up Accelerator’s website.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world