An Ashesi senior lecturer in Entrepreneurship worked to alleviate poverty in Ghana’s cocoa-growing regions by providing entrepreneurship training to local youth. “The objective of the MASO Business Academy is to help participants identify and engage with local employment opportunities,” she explains. “By so doing, they can earn an income and subsequently gain purchasing power to help boost economic growth in their localities.” The program involves coaching, mentoring, and incubation for the entrepreneurs and their businesses. With expertise from other successful entrepreneurs, as well as Ashesi’s faculty the process allows participants to explore opportunity spaces, build and test business models, and receive grant support. By the end of the project, 625 men and 656 women between the ages of 17 and 25 had completed the training. In total, 1,281 participants started 763
businesses after their training.