Impact of Swiss Re Start-Up Academy on Ali Issah's Entrepreneurial journey
Ali Issah is an AiduTalent from the Ghana chapter. He attended the Swiss Re Start-Up Academy implemented in Ghana by Aiducation International and Junior Achievement Ghana in partnership with the Swiss Re Foundation in 2019. He recently participated in the SNV Start-Up Fund competition and won GH₵40,000 SNV startup fund to expand his co-owned agribusiness startup called Progal Agro-Processing Ltd. The SNV startup forum final which came on September 28, 2022, brought together 52 young startups in Ghana who are into various business activities to showcase their business prospects.
Please read his story below on how the Swiss Re Start-Up academy has impacted him and his experience from the SNV competition...
My name is Ali Issah, a graduate from the University of Cape Coast with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. I come from a village in the Offinso Municipality in the Ashanti region of Ghana, and I am currently a teacher by profession.
My entrepreneurial journey started in 2019 when I got the chance to attend the one-week Swiss Re Start-up Academy organized in Accra, Ghana. Even though I had it in my subconscious mind to do business in the long term, attending the startup academy rather opened me up quickly to pursuing any viable business venture. This is because I got exposed to almost all the nitty gritty of entrepreneurship.
Having been equipped with valuable skills like identifying a business idea, pitching for funds and business model canvas among others, I made a vow to be an entrepreneur, hence the birth of Progal Agro-Processing Ltd.
Pictures taken of Ali Issah receiving the SNV Start-Up Fund completion award
Progal Agro-Processing Ltd is an agribusiness startup owned by two people, Ali Issah and Emelia Musah. Our business is in two phases. That is, farming and processing. my partner and I have begun the first phase on 1st June 2022 which is farming. We currently own about 12 acres of cassava farm where we have close to 50 workers on site almost all the time. Our aim is to support the global sustainable goal agenda of ending poverty and hunger while providing citizens with an abundance of food alongside creating decent jobs in the Agribusiness value chain. As a result, we intend to roll out the second phase of our business by the first quarter of next year(2023). By then, our cassava would have been ready for harvest. However, we’ve also noticed that our farm alone would not be enough to feed our processing factory so we have sensitized other farmers in the community to also venture into cassava farming on a larger scale since we will be giving them a ready market. That is, we will be buying the cassava from them when it is up to be harvested. I can boldly say that through this initiative, we have about 100 acres of cassava farms waiting for our factory. Not long ago we also had the opportunity to partner with some government agencies such as the Ghana Enterprise Agency (GEA) and the district office of the Ministry Of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) on the best way for our business prospects.
How did we come across and win the SNV startup challenge?
Around May 2022, I chanced upon a flyer from SNV Ghana making waves on the internet calling for SMEs to submit a business plan to compete for start-up funds. The entrepreneurial spirit inculcated in me by Swiss Re Start-up Academy could not let off this opportunity, so I took advantage by reading about the requirements. I worked with my partner to develop our business plan, shape it with Progal Agro-Processing Ltd and got it submitted. In July 2022, we had a call to confirm that we had qualified for the next stage of the competition. We were told a team would be sent to us to do due diligence on our business and its operation. We were excited and patiently waited for the team’s arrival.
On September 17, 2022, we received a team of three from SNV. We took them to our farm which is located at Bonsua-Offinso for inspection and answered some questions. Five days later after they left we received an email confirming our spot in the final stage of the competition which was the stage to do the pitching.
I heaved a sigh of relief knowing that GH₵40,000 is at stake and there was no way my pitching skills learnt earlier from the Swiss Re start-up Academy would have given up on me at this point. So we prepared and went for the pitching which took place on 26th September 2022 and the next day 27th September 2022. We were 52 startups in total that reached this stage. However, at the end of the contest, we were confirmed as part of the group that performed well and so we were awarded a cheque of GH₵40,000 to support our processing factory.
I am really overwhelmed by this, but I look back and realize this wouldn’t have been possible had I not gotten the chance to attend the Swiss Re start-up academy put together by J.A Ghana and Aiducation International in partnership with the Swiss Re Foundation. I am very grateful to the organizers, the wonderful mentors and all those who made the academy a success.
Written by Ali Issah, AiduTalent from Ghana