Ivy Barley
Ivy Barley, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) & Co-Founder of Developers in Vogue, a Ghanaian firm, was among some 12 finalists selected for the KweséInc#GoGettaz entrepreneurship competition held Friday at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya.
Through her company, she is empowering young girls as young as 16 years old to get into technology by teaching them how to code through coding boot-camps, providing mentors for them and linking them with actual projects available in the job market.
As a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum, she is currently shaping a world where more African women will be daring enough to lead in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields.
Ivy was named as one of the Top 50 Most Influential Young Ghanaians in 2017.
She walked away with $10,000 investment as one of the 10 runners up to Ezinne Uko of Nigeria and Peter Wachira of Kenya, who were selected as the two winners of the $200,000.
Both walked away with a $100,000 investment, a similar amount in credit facility from Equity Bank Kenya, and a two-week mentorship at Kwesé’s headquarters in South Africa with Strive Masiyiwa, founder and Executive Chairman of Econet Global.
Following two days of intense training sessions at the Nairobi Garage with experienced mentors in business, innovation and entrepreneurship, including Sebastian Wafula (The Wafula Corporation Limited), Patricia Jumi (Growth Africa), Grant Brooke (Twiga Foods), Peter Park (Connect Health) and Jussi Hinkkanen (Fuzu) Ezinne and Peter have taken the grand prize from a group of 12 finalists from DRC, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
As one of the largest entrepreneurship competitions on the African continent, the journey to selecting the final winners was an amazing one with over 4,800 competition entries, 50 million social media shares and over 200,000 web page visits.
The winners endured, and their businesses will not only benefit financially but, as first-ever Kwesé Fellows, they will also continue to receive best business/venture practices from Mr Masiyiwa for the duration of their mentorship programme.
A business desk report