Deadline: 18 August 2014
TechnoServe together with Department for International Development (DFID), UK Government has announced funding for Enhancing Growth in New Enterprise programme (ENGINE), a national Business Plan Competition and Entrepreneurship Development Program.The mission of this programme is promote entrepreneurship and private sector development in Ghana.
The program seeks to achieve its objectives through the following components:
- Business Plan Competition (BPC)
- Entrepreneur Aftercare
Categories:
- Agribusiness and Processing {including Greenfield Operations}
- Energy
- Services {including but not limited to Media, Hospitality and Tourism}
- Technology/Communications
- Light Manufacturing
- Private Sector Solutions to Water, Health or Education
- Other (Applicants will need to specify what sector if it does not fall into the provided categories)
Eligibility criteria:
- Be a Ghanaian citizen
- Be 20 years of age or older at the time of submitting the application
- Propose an expansion on an existing business or a new business that is or will be based in Ghana
- Have no more than 50 employees (existing businesses)
- Propose a business expansion or concept that will realistically create at least 5 new jobs by the end of the second year of business operations, and will have a minimum investment base of GH¢50,000 and annual sales of GH¢100,000 by the end of the third year of business operations
- Propose an expansion or a new business in any sector or industry (except Imports to Sell)
- A firm commitment to submit basic financial data for a period of 3 years following participation in the program, as well as submitting financial data during the issuance of the grant
- Ideas can be submitted by individuals or by a group. If an idea is submitted by a group, all group members must meet all of the above stated criteria
- Each idea may be submitted only once
- Only one person per application may participate in training sessions, events, consultant meetings and any other aspect of the competition. The same person from any one business team must attend the entire programme from beginning to end. The only exceptions that may be made will be by consultants, who may agree in advance to meet with additional members of a management team
- No employee or associate of the employee (spouse, parent, cousin, nephew, niece, or child) of any of the organizations associated with the competition is permitted to participate
- All businesses proposed must be profit seeking, self-sustaining businesses. No non-profit entities will be accepted
For more information, visit ENGINE.
