Climate change has become a buzzword in this day and age, and rightly so. According to the World Bank report Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change, Ghana’s agricultural GDP may decline by 3 to 8 percent if measures to adapt are not implemented. Amidst the looming crisis, opportunities exist and the Bank Group’s agenda is to not only support developing countries to cope with the effects, but also realise and exploit the opportunities available in clean technology. Against this backdrop, a network of Climate Innovation Centers (CICs) were established to groom and support new and growing businesses driving economic growth within clean-tech industries.

Our first program in West Africa is with one of the centres, the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC).

“In addition to [GCIC] providing the technical and advisory services that allow our entrepreneurs to elevate their entrepreneurial journey, our partnership with Mowgli Mentoring provides an additional mechanism to support our entrepreneurs to optimize their mindset for entrepreneurial success — and to become extraordinary.” Ruka Sanusi, GCIC Executive Director

Although mentoring is valuable throughout the entrepreneurial life cycle, there are three key developmental phases; start-up, growth and success stages, that require mentoring. With most GCIC entrepreneurs still being on the start-up phase and looking to scale, mentoring supports the centre’s support services by giving the entrepreneurs a support community and guidance to deal with personal interferences such as self-doubt, fear of failure, breaking through the glass ceiling and others that prevent them from successfully moving their businesses forward. The Tim Gallwey phrase ‘Potential minus Interference equals Success’ clearly defines the importance of Mowgli’s mentoring methodology and its importance in supporting entrepreneurs.

So far, 12 businesses professionals are being supported as part of this pilot mentoring program and have been matched with trained Mowgli Mentors who are acting as a business and psychological sounding boards, motivating and empowering the entrepreneurs as they take on the sometimes lonely and challenging entrepreneurial journey.