Influential Organizing Committee to Help Believe Begin Become Programme Participants Turn Good Ideas into Thriving Enterprises

ACCRA, GHANA, MARCH 14, 2006 — Believe Begin Become, Ghana's national business plan competition, today introduced its high-profile organizing committee. Its roster includes five business leaders who have achieved the sort of entrepreneurial success that the program will promote when it officially launches on March 28, 2006. The program will be run by TechnoServe (a nonprofit organization that supports entrepreneurs in developing countries), with the support of the Google Foundation (Google's philanthropic arm).

The organizing committee members are: Ishmael Yamson, founder and CEO of Ishmael Yamson & Associates; Ken Ofori-Atta, executive chairman and co-founder of Databank; Patrick Awuah, founder and president of Ashesi University; Grace Amey-Obeng, managing director of FC Group of Companies; Tony Oteng Gyasi, managing director of Tropical Cable & Conductor Ltd. (AGI President), and Nick Railston-Brown, country
director of TechnoServe/Ghana.

Believe Begin Become will identify entrepreneurial men and women and equip them with the tools and networks they need to build competitive, self-sustaining small and medium enterprises that will accelerate economic growth and reduce poverty.

The business plan competition will solicit innovative new business ideas and provide training, mentoring and business development assistance to promising entrepreneurs. More than 500 entrants are expected; all eligible applicants will be invited to attend a seminar on the high-level structure of a business plan and key success factors in the entrepreneurial process. Sixty of them will be selected to proceed on to intensive business training and one-on-one sessions with consultants who will help them prepare draft business plans.

Ten winners will receive seed investment money to help launch or expand their businesses. Equally important, twenty winners and finalists will receive "aftercare" business development services to ensure that they have the support and tools necessary to turn their business plans into self-sustaining and competitive businesses.

The program's web site (www.believe-begin-become.com) will debut on Monday, March 20th, 2006. Applications will be accepted online and at TechnoServe offices when the program launches at the end of the month.

"The people you will meet here— including your peers, investors or venture capitalists, organizers, trainers, professors and businessmen who will share their stories— are all an incredible opportunity that anyone participating in this competition should take advantage of," says Awuah. "They will play a very important role in your success. They can give you great advice. They can help you make connections."

The program will tap the high entrepreneurial energy of the Ghanaian population. All good ideas are welcome and applicants will be sorted into three industry categories— agri-business and processing, light manufacturing, and services— in order to tailor their training, mentoring, and network opportunities.

"Wealth creation means finding entrepreneurial people within Ghana and helping them build and sustain businesses," says Railston-Brown. "In the last five years, this has taken on a new momentum because government policy has encouraged the private sector to take a lead in the development of Ghana. This fits very closely with TechnoServe's objectives. What we will be doing through Believe Begin Become is identifying and training entrepreneurs who can create new jobs for Ghana through sustainable business concepts."

TechnoServe has been working in Ghana since 1971. In the last 10 years alone, TechnoServe/Ghana has provided business development services to more than 180 businesses and has facilitated entrepreneurship training and capacity-building programs for more than 200 potential entrepreneurs, resulting in numerous start-ups and business expansions.

Believe Begin Become is modeled on business plan competitions TechnoServe has successfully implemented in Central America and is also rolling out elsewhere in Africa. Since debuting in El Salvador in 2002, these competitions have helped hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs to create or expand dozens of businesses.

"It is exciting for us to know that there will be a much more formal way to encourage people to be more creative, to be dynamic, to just dig deep into Ghana on entrepreneurship, and to empower entrepreneurs with the confidence to be global players," says Ofori-Atta. "Our expectation is that by mentoring these new entrepreneurs we can begin to build the Googles and the Nokias of the future from this country."

About TechnoServe: TechnoServe helps entrepreneurial men and women in the developing world to build businesses that provide jobs, income and economic opportunity. Since its founding in 1968, the U.S.-based nonprofit has helped to create or improve more than 2,000 businesses, benefiting millions of people in 32 countries.

For more information, please contact:
Katherine Pasternak, Operations Manager, TechnoServe/Ghana Tel: + 233-21-763673; Cell: +233-244-322524; Email: katherine.pasternak@tnsgh.org
Nick Railston-Brown, Country Director, TechnoServe/Ghana Tel: +233 21 773875; Cell: +233 324 101; Email: nickrb@tnsgh.org