The Ashesi Center for Entrepreneurship (ACE) recently hosted thirty-three students and faculty from Cornell University for an exchange on how ventures are built, tested, and grown within emerging-market realities.
The group, drawn from Cornell’s Residential and Executive MBA, Master of Science, and Applied Economics programs, included professionals from finance, consulting, media, and technology with strong interests in entrepreneurship and venture capital.
During the visit, they engaged with founders from the Student Incubator and the Ashesi Venture Incubator (AVI), gaining direct insight into the practical constraints and strategic choices involved in building businesses in markets where infrastructure, access, and customer behavior can be difficult to predict.
Jessica Boifio, Associate Director at ACE, introduced the Center’s approach to entrepreneurship development, explaining how Ashesi supports founders as they move from early ideas toward more viable ventures. She noted: “We want our builders to develop the discipline and resilience to keep working through uncertainty, adapt to real constraints, and keep building.”
A recurring theme throughout the session was that strong ventures in African markets are not built through simple replication. They are built through deep contextual understanding, thoughtful adaptation, and a clear focus on solving real problems.
Prof. Lourdes Casanova, Director of the Emerging Markets Institute at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, led the delegation. Her work focuses on integrating global perspectives into MBA education and reshaping how Africa’s business landscape is understood.
“I have heard so much about Ashesi as an academic institution training entrepreneurs for the continent and taking the business context to another level,” she said.
Cornell participants engaged founders building across fintech, agriculture, health, wellness, fashion, and retail. These included Kowri, an Ashesi alumni venture enabling digital payments for more than 500,000 users and expanding into Côte d’Ivoire and francophone Africa; Farmitecture, which is growing urban agriculture through greenhouse and hydroponic systems; nBogne, which uses SMS- and USSD-based tools to collect and analyze health data in underserved Cameroonian communities and is preparing to expand into Ghana; Go Inside, a wellness venture expanding into corporate services; Wholly Kombucha, which is building a functional wellness brand around probiotic beverages and fermented products; and INRI, a handcrafted apparel venture in the Student Incubator.
The team also visited Kodi Pet Shop and Salon in Dzorwulu, Accra, where founder Ruweida Salifu shared her experience building a niche venture in an underserved market.
This visit opens pathways for continued collaboration between Ashesi’s venture ecosystem and global investors and operators engaging with African markets.
