The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre: Our Work and our Mission
The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) is a pioneering business incubator and accelerator with a unique focus on supporting small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana’s ‘Green Economy’. The Centre is an institute of Ashesi University, one of Africa’s leading liberal arts universities with a mission to raise ethical, entrepreneurial leaders with the courage to transform the continent.
GCIC’s work is at the nexus of private enterprise, climate change, economic development, and ecological prosperity. We support an exceptional set of transformational businesses and entrepreneurs who are pioneering adaptive and mitigating solutions for climate change issues in Ghana.
Since commencement of business incubation activities in June 2017, GCIC has supported almost 120 enterprises in Ghana’s small and growing business sector who have climate innovation in five key economic sectors, namely: climate smart agriculture, solar power, energy efficiency, domestic waste management, and water management and purification. To date, these enterprises have performed admirably to, inter alia, scale their businesses, generating cumulative revenues of over US$4.7m, sequester 327154MTs of CO2 emissions, raised early or growth stage financing of over US$2m, created 981 jobs, and have served over 2 million Ghanaian households with their climate-smart goods and services.
Ghana’s economic growth is driven by SMEs, with SMEs accounting for more than 70% of businesses in Ghana. Given this, developing and enhancing entrepreneurship professionalism among Ghana’s SMEs so that they can start, operate and grow their businesses more successfully using international best practice (together with improving their knowledge base and building their understanding of the practicalities of private enterprise) is a prerequisite to ensure that SMEs, and especially SMEs with important climate innovation that respond to the climate emergency, have the capacity to commercially succeed and to go the long-haul with their business.
Through a competitive national search and selection process, the GCIC identifies and supports enterprises in its incubator and accelerator with a range of interventions and services, including business advisory services, technical services in the development, prototyping and testing of their innovation, climate policy advocacy and regulatory support services, market growth and access support as well as financial grants.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP TECHNOLOGY AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Reports to: Director of Entrepreneurship, Investments and Partnerships
Purpose
The GCIC is seeking an Enterprise Technology and Product Development Manager to support the Centre in the realisation of its ambition to become a renowned Centre of Excellence for climate smart business incubation and entrepreneurship, spearheading the transition to a low carbon economy through SME led private enterprise. The Enterprise Technology and Product Development Manager will support the Centre’s Director of Entrepreneurship, Investments and Partnerships in executing the Centre’s business and operations strategy, as well as oversee the execution GCIC’s support to its entrepreneurs in the areas of operations and product development, with a view to ensuring that these are climate-smart and embody clean technology.
As the GCIC enters a significant and exciting phase of its development and transitions beyond the financial support of its original donors, this is a critical position for the GCIC and demands a highly capable and dynamic individual comfortable in an entrepreneurial environment. The selected candidate will be a member of the GCIC management team, working closely with and reporting to the Director of Entrepreneurship, Investments and Partnerships
Job Responsibilities
- Support GCIC enterprises to build sustainable competitive advantage through the development and or use climate smart technologies and low emission practices in their business operations and manufacturing processes, enabling their businesses to create a sustainable commercial and ESG advantage.
- Raise the knowledge, awareness and capacity of GCIC supported enterprises to solve business and societal challenges through the use of climate-smart and low emissions technologies; providing guidance and mentorship to enterprises on business strategy, product strategy, and operations, including commercializing technologies, products and services.
- Identify and champion opportunities for open innovation within GCIC supported enterprises
- Develop and manage GCIC’s environmental and social safeguards assessment and management processes to ensure that GCIC supported enterprises deploy all necessary national and best practice protocols in the operations and management of their enterprises.
- Manage GCIC’s strategic partnerships with national and international scientific and industrial research centres.
- Manage the grant application, management, and monitoring process for GCIC supported enterprises to attain financial support to transition their operations to be low emitting, climate-smart technologies.
- Ensure that premium technical facilities are available to GCIC supported entrepreneurs, including prototyping and lean manufacturing machinery and software.
- Design technical courses and provide training for entrepreneurs on the use of equipment as well as other technical trainings related to the entrepreneurs’ focal areas. This includes training in general manufacturing best practices to assist entrepreneurs professionalize their production.
Qualifications and Experience
- Master’s degree in science and technology management, business administration or other relevant disciplines, preferably in specific sectors, such as solar energy, energy efficiency, waste management, climate smart agriculture and water management and purification.
- At least 10 years of related work experience, including 8 years of hands-on experience in development projects or working in business-related positions.
- Prior leadership experience of working with early and growth stage companies within the business incubation and technology context, with knowledge of and familiarity with the key issues that confront typical start-ups.
Required skills
- Strong knowledge of best/current practices in climate-smart, clean technologies within the African context. Advanced knowledge of ESG principles and protocols
- Problem solver with strong ability to think strategically, laterally, and creatively. Exhibits a curious mind, with strong business acumen and ability to translate technology to potential business impacts.
- Outstanding presentation and communication (including public speaking) skills, with the ability to communicate and work effectively with multiple and differing internal as well as external stakeholders.
- Commitment to executing GCIC’s gender sensitive and gender equity approach to business incubation, ensuring that all GCIC’s programs have an equal impact on both men and women involved in the incubator and accelerator.
- Ability to represent the GCIC in local and international forums, interact with leading thinkers and actors in the climate-smart entrepreneurship ecosystems locally and globally.
- A sincere passion for entrepreneurs and the ecosystem that supports start-ups in the region.
How to Apply:
Kindly send CV and Cover Letter to info@ghanacic.org. Emails should be titled “Enterprise Technology and Product Development Manager”. Deadline for applications is 16th March 2023.
