The challenge created a safe space where German and Ghanaian companies could integrate innovative solutions to improve efficiency and productivity.
January 27th, 2021
Ghana Flying Labs was invited by the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Ghana to serve as cooperating partners in AHK Ghana's first "Innovation Challenge" to increase women technology innovators and support companies who operate in Ghana with software solutions.
Another aim was to create a safe space where German and Ghanaian companies can integrate very innovative solutions in their systems to improve efficiency and productivity.
The AHK Ghana Innovation Challenge involved a select group of companies, Ghana Flying Labs and Volkswagen Ghana, providing a problem to the participants, who then, divided into groups, would attempt to solve using software development. The groups were divided into cohorts. The cohort of Ghana Flying Labs had three teams consisting of three-to-four women who were challenged to work on over four weeks. From the needs assessment by AHK Ghana, the women were tasked with developing a project management system for Ghana Flying Labs—an invaluable tool in helping the team organize and execute projects, like our recent hippo-conservation project.
The groups spent the next couple of weeks developing functional prototypes of the project management system with help from trainers from Code Train and Developers in Vogue. The team gave regular progress reports and received feedback from us to improve the prototype.
The groups’ minimum viable products (MVP) were pitched to a jury headed by the Ghana Flying Labs CEO, Mr. Francis Owusu, and supported by AHK Ghana’s Stefanie Simon and Michael Blank.
During the pitch, the participants presented their prototypes to a panel of judges, including Mr. Owusu. They were scored from 1-3 by each person on the jury. After collating the pitch session scores, Team HACINTA emerged as the AHK Ghana Innovation Challenge winners in our cohort. Their reward is an internship program with Ghana Flying Labs while they work to improve their prototype.
From our interactions with the participants and the general atmosphere around the whole program, we have been very impressed with AHK Ghana’s initiative and the quality of upcoming programmers trained in the country. Ghana Flying Labs is open to participating in future programs to help more Ghanaian female developers grow their networks and their skills.
Sincere thanks to AHK Ghana for inviting us to be a part of this innovation challenge and Volkswagen, Code Train, and Developers in Vogue Ghana. Visit for more information about the program and our involvement.
