February 15, 2015 Accra, Ghana — Social entrepreneurs across Ghana, along with numerous organizations that support them, launched the first industry group for social enterprises in the country at the British Council Auditorium Monday. Social Entrepreneurs Ghana (SE Ghana) is being launched by a number of social entrepreneurs and organizations including Reach for Change, the British Council, Impact Hub, Growth Mosaic, TEDxAccra, mPedigree, TANOE, Street Library, Challenging Heights, Ashesi University, AACT, Nneka Foundation, Farmable, CRESSENT, InnoHuB, phinklife, Kokroko foundation, GEW and Center for Social Innovation.
The goal of SE Ghana is to organize and develop a strong ecosystem for the social enterprise sector by increasing funding, driving policy, intensifying learning and innovation and ensuring that there is adequate research and data on the sector. SE Ghana is a part of the larger African Social Entrepreneurship Network (ASEN) which seeks to improve the social entrepreneurship ecosystem across the continent. SE Ghana, like other networks around the world, brings together social entrepreneurs to support one another, lead development in the social entrepreneurship space, and advocate for their shared interests.
Social entrepreneurs are individuals who address society’s most pressing social and environmental problems through the use of business strategies. This model enables them to achieve sustainable social or environmental impact.
While there are many strong social entrepreneurs in Ghana working to tackle a variety of issues, and organizations supporting them with incubators, fellowships, and prizes, the sector is not well organized and many social enterprises remain small. The main causes for this are inadequate funding, training, research and policy support. SE Ghana brings various industry players together to work to address these challenges. The goals of the network are to:
- Increase learning and innovation in the sector by connecting social entrepreneurs to each other and supporting learning and innovation activities.
- Increase funding to social enterprises, establish growth funds and help social enterprises become investment ready.
- Build awareness and advocate for policies and programs that promote social enterprises.
- Conduct research to broaden understanding of the social enterprise landscape, document best practices and capture the impact social enterprises are creating.
Speaking at the launch, SE Ghana co-founder and CEO, Amma Lartey said: “It’s exciting to see what began as a grassroots movement now develop into an industry group. We believe that the private sector needs to be the driver of development in Ghana: social enterprise enables this development to happen in a deliberate and sustainable way. Our network will accelerate this development.”
SE Ghana’s executive director, Adadzewa Otoo, added: “Although the initiatives of SE Ghana are led by social entrepreneurs, we will partner with large corporates, media, academic institutions and government. We see many opportunities to drive social and business objectives through win-win partnerships.”
The members anticipate that the network will lead to a stronger social enterprise ecosystem – an environment which enables social enterprises to grow, thrive and deliver solutions to problems Ghanaians face.
The network is looking to sign on more social entrepreneurs and stakeholders as associates, members or partners. For more information on SE Ghana visit www.seghana.net.
Press Contact: Adadzewa Otoo, info@seghana.net
