iSpace Foundation is a technology hub in
Ghana
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
known to offer a co-working space, tools and facilities for entrepreneurs and startups to launch and manage their business ideas. It was founded in 2013 by two technology entrepreneurs Josiah Kwesi Eyison and Fiifi Baidoo.
Activities
Though iSpace is known as a technology hub its activities have not been limited to technology.
REACH
REACH was a mentoring and networking program designed to connect Ghanaian startups with
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
entrepreneurs.
Accra Negawatt Competition
The Accra Negawatt Competition was a competition by the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
in partnership with the space to generate technology software solutions to the
power crisis which faced Ghana.
Code to Startup
The Code to Startup program was designed to give individuals programming skills needed to launch their technology startups.
Unlocking Women and Technology
The Unlocking Women and Technology program – an initiative of iSpace in partnership with Mobile Web was designed to get more females into technology by giving them
computer programming
Computer programming or coding is the composition of sequences of instructions, called computer program, programs, that computers can follow to perform tasks. It involves designing and implementing algorithms, step-by-step specifications of proc ...
skills and access to startup funds. Florence Tofa and Josiah Eyison are passionate about empowering women through the use of technology. To be rich in this current generation, one needs a lot of this new resource and that is what UWAT aims at doing by equipping women with the requisite skills to survive this technological era.
Online forms were circulated on the internet, 104 women applied and all were taken through interview sessions from 1 to 2 September 2016 at Mobile Web Ghana. Selected applicants were taken through a twelve weeks course training in some programming languages, entrepreneurship and business training. The sessions began on 10 September 2016 from 9 am to 2 pm at Mobile Web Ghana and 10 October 2016 at Ispace Foundation. There were weekend schedules and weekday schedules to enable career women and students alike to have a flexible period.
After the twelve weeks class an all Female Pitch competition was held on 26 November 2016 and 3 December 2016 respectively to select applicants for an accelerator programme where they will be given funding for their startup.
The accelerator programme ran for thirteen weeks.
3D Printing Hackathon
Through the 3D Printing Hackathon, Eden Labs which is based in iSpace creates a platform for developers to train and also showcase their 3D designs and products.
Other events and involvement
* Social Impact Week
* Startup Dialogues
* Africa Code Week
References
External links
Hivos: iSpace Lights Up Ghana's Tech Scene{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220183750/https://southern-africa.hivos.org/news/ispace-lights-ghanas-tech-scene , date=20 December 2016
IndigoTrust: New grant awarded to iSpace
Business organisations based in Ghana