The youth in Ghana appear to be responding well to the increased attention the country is receiving from the tech world. As a result, a number of tech centers are establishing themselves across the nation, providing young people with the skills they need to obtain employment in the global tech ecosystem. Although this is a wonderful thing, the majority of students don’t seem to be well equipped for the working world. Aside from leading a very hectic life to make a living, techies are not leveraging their knowledge and talents to contribute meaningfully to society. African leadership issues continue to hang over us like an albatross, so we need a new generation of young people who are highly skilled, professionally and personally developed, and who also have a fresh perspective.
For these and many more reasons, Techstripped Africa set aside the entire month of June to organize a series of workshops designed to provide young people (students and professionals) all around the nation with personal development training. The work plan Kwame Owusu Ansah (founder and president of Techstripped Africa) presented for the Reciprocal Exchange grant he earned from IREX after taking part in the 2021 Mandela Washington Fellowship included these seminars. The Reciprocal Exchange gives Americans the chance to work with Fellowship Alumni, expanding on the strategic alliances and expert relationships made with Fellows throughout their program.
The first session featured a presentation on “Becoming a leader in Tech, Relevance Minded Approach” by entrepreneur and economist Ebenezer Amankwa-Minkah and CEO and Founder of 1 Billion Africa, Prince Adu-Appiah. The online session was a success because, according to a post-event poll, every single participant said they were inspired to start leading with relevance in their personal or professional lives.
The American Corner in Mobile Web Ghana, Agbogba, hosted the second hybrid workshop session (both in-person and online). The US collaborator, Joseph Robert Patton, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the creator of DY-DO, gave a speech on “Developing Yourself to Make Impact.” Kwame also offered personal anecdotes about how improving himself allowed him more possibilities to be indispensible and helped him have an influence where he previously worked. All the attendees were content and felt encouraged to grow so they could have a bigger effect. The presentations were highly enlightening.
Finally, Divya Srungaram, Senior Manager at Deloitte, shared practical insights on how to apply Design Thinking to everyday work. Over 85 percent of the audience said the speaker was able to help them understand how to apply design thinking to their work and that they were given a springboard to incorporate design thinking in their work.
Over 200 people attended the three workshops, with 86.5 percent of them being students and 13.5 percent being workers from various sectors of the economy.
Techstripped Africa is an accelerator and tech influence network dedicated to addressing two of Africa’s most pressing issues: unemployment and leadership. They aim to gradually help deal with these challenges and put Africa on the pedestal it deserves through a series of accelerator programs, skill development, mentoring sessions, and workshops. It was founded by Kwame Owusu Ansah, a 2021 Mandela Washington Fellow, Deloitte D2i Alumni, and tech entrepreneur who is passionate about using technology to drive positive change on the African continent.
