Ashesi University
Enabling Africa's Climate Resilience
A center at Ashesi University, we are contributing to a climate-resilient economy in Ghana. We support climate-focused entrepreneurs and advocate for government policies that enable sustainable economic development.
Our work covers ventures across energy efficiency, renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture, waste management, and water purification. We also provide tailored guidance to larger companies seeking to enhance environmental sustainability in their operations.
Business Incubation
The business incubation program supports entrepreneurs who have innovative solutions and businesses that aid in the mitigation or adaptation of climate change.
Policy Advocacy
We advocate for government policies that enable a climate resilient society driven by innovation, low carbon solutions, ‘carbon budgets’, and plans to meet carbon budgets.
Supporting Women
The Women Entrepreneurs Transformation Program provides gender-sensitive business advisory services for women to help strengthen their leadership.
Climate Entrepreneurship & Enterprise Development
- Venture Incubation
- Venture Acceleration
- SME Green Transformation
- Women & Youth Climate Enterprise Initiative
Climate Finance & Capital Mobilisation
- Finance Readiness
- Investment Readiness
- Project Preparation Facility
- Carbon Market Readiness
Policy & Ecosystem Development
- Climate Policy Labs
- Ecosystem Strengthening
- Regional and International Climate Leadership Dialogues
Knowledge, Impact & Learning
- Faculty Fellowship
- Applied Research & Case Development
- Student Climate Fellows
- Executive Education
Leadership, Talent & Institutional Excellence
- GCIC Learning Modules
- Professional Certification
- International Learning & Exchange
Policy & Ecosystem Development
- Climate Policy Labs
- Ecosystem Strengthening
- Regional and International Climate Leadership Dialogues
383
Businesses supported
39.1m
Customers served by GCIC businesses
$45.2m
Additional capital raised by businesses
991k
Metric Tonnes of Carbon Dioxide emissions avoided
3,728
Total employment
created
$21.77m
Cumulative
revenue
* These results represent the cumulative impact of GCIC’s work since 2017
If you are a business already greening or hoping to green your operations and service delivery through the adoption of innovative solutions to address climate change impacts, then this program is for you. Our business incubator is open to entrepreneurs based in Ghana. You can apply to one of the following tracks:
The Women’s Agribusiness Incubation Programme is a nine-month GCIC initiative supporting women-led businesses in Ghana’s cashew and nut processing value chain sector to move beyond raw commodity trading to value-added processing and growth. This initiative is under the Ghana Private Sector Competitiveness Programme II, a bilateral initiative of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Government of Ghana.
The Standard Chartered Foundation Women in Tech Accelerator is specifically designed to provide business incubation support for women-led or women-owned businesses that leverage technology. The project, currently running in Kenya, Nigeria, UAE, and Pakistan, aims to promote more diversity of thought and innovation in the technology sector and provide more opportunities for women applying technology in their operations to develop entrepreneurial excellence. The GCIC works with Standard Chartered Bank to oversee the Ghana program.
In partnership with Global Affairs Canada, this program contributes to strengthening Ghana’s ability to respond to the economic and social impacts of climate change by supporting small and medium-scale entrepreneurs to develop profitable and locally appropriate solutions to mitigate or adapt to climate change. It also increases public awareness of the green economy, and helps to improve the policy environment to effectively contribute to Ghana’s transition to a safer, healthier, more equitable and more prosperous low-carbon, green economy.
The Green Business Competitions program is an initiative funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through GIZ implemented programme “Support to the Private and Financial Sector (PFS)
MSMEs who successfully join the program will benefit from 6 months business development support & will be eligible to access a grant up to Є10,000.
Between 2016 and 2020, the World Bank partnered with GCIC to support entrepreneurs and SMEs focused on developing locally appropriate solutions to climate change. This partnership facilitated the establishment of a climate innovation centre, aimed at increasing business activity in the climate technology sector and supporting sustainable growth.