Uniting African innovators at unique Enterprise School

A unique Enterprise School for African student-entrepreneurs took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, in July 2024. The opportunity formed through the partnership between the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the University of Edinburgh, united 72 postgraduate students from 13 countries to develop innovative skills and deliver business pitches to expert mentors and judges.

Group photo taken at the Enterprise School - Wits

At the heart of the programme was the core belief in promoting transferable skills such as problem-solving, decision-making, communication, and teamwork – this engaged passion within the group to face the challenges of entrepreneurship and put those skills into practice.

Uniting for a unique transformative experience

The Enterprise School was designed to offer the first ever opportunity for Edinburgh’s online and on-campus Mastercard Foundation Scholars on the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program to work together in person. They united enthusiastically with their peers and 10 local students from Wits, bringing their diverse professional expertise and cultural contexts.

The programme was supported by Tshimologong Precinct (the centre for digital innovation at Wits), Edinburgh Innovations, and expert mentors, and was an exemplar of the advantages of partnership to deliver collaborative training with high value.

The energy in the room was palpable as those who had only interacted online before came together to tackle real-world challenges. Witnessing the collaborative spirit of online and on-campus scholars from different countries and programmes of study was a powerful reminder of the unique value of bringing diverse perspectives together. This powerful learning experience in Johannesburg highlighted the importance of creating spaces where online and in-person scholars can come together with insights, resources, and skills, challenge the status quo, be bold and creative and build a stronger, more connected African innovation ecosystem.

Rich in-person networking and entrepreneurial collaboration

Many of the participants emphasised the value of entrepreneurship, the benefits of meeting in person and making connections, and the shared passion to be change-makers.

Before I came to this, I had no idea how to start a business. When I saw the agenda, I really hoped that I would learn something about business creation and pitching ideas. Truly, it has been a very good experience, because I was able to collaborate with a lot of people from different backgrounds and get their ideas on how to develop a business.

The Enterprise School has really opened a lot of opportunities; networking opportunities from meeting other online learners, and, importantly, experience in entrepreneurship. Personally, I am an introvert, but to come into this programme and work in groups with new people has really pulled me along and I'm beginning to love entrepreneurship.

For me, it's being in a room filled with young leaders who have got so much potential. The young people that I have met at this Enterprise School are going to transform Africa. I am so confident because there are so many young professionals, so many young people with these big dreams, these big goals for Africa, and I too am passionate about transforming Africa.”

Immersive co-creation across diverse backgrounds

A key element of the programme was the dynamic and intensive workshop, ‘Techstars Startup Weekend’, designed to foster entrepreneurship talent delivered by Edinburgh Innovations (Richard Palmer and Farai Munjoma). Over a fast-paced three days, participants formed teams to develop business ideas and build prototypes. Guided by the facilitators and mentors, the teams worked through the key stages of creating a start-up; from brainstorming to market validation and pitching.

The programme concluded with pitches to a panel of specialist judges, who posed tough questions and gave useful feedback for real-world development. This immersive experience not only helped refine ideas but also connected them in a broad peer-community of innovators.

The programme encourages innovation in different ways. Firstly, we’ve got an enthusiastic group of people with different perspectives, backgrounds, and exposure to different challenges that they have observed in their communities that they would love to solve. That multiple perspective aspect is very key. Secondly, it’s a three-day period where everything is intensive, and that intensity also pushes people to be able to think on their feet and come up with creative ways to stand out.

The teams’ business pitches addressed a spectrum of real-world problems with details of their problem-solving concepts and products, customers and markets, and competitor analysis. Three team prizes were awarded by the judges:

Biggest Social / Environmental Impact EcoCreditation: a concept for cocoa farming carbon credits to offset emissions within chocolate industry production

Most Compelling Pitch SokoFarmers: a platform linking direct to market consumers to reduce food waste in Kenya

Most Developed Business Plan ChipChick: an e-waste reuse programme to create incubation products to improve the rate of hatching healthy eggs

Dynamic training to empower African innovation

For the Mastercard Foundation Scholars who participated the significance of the training is that it can empower sustainable economic development. The programme addressed context-specific challenges and opportunities, unique to Africa, that the students themselves identified and developed.

Entrepreneurship is crucial for driving innovation and economic growth in Africa. This programme, delivered at Tshimologong Precinct, equips scholars with key skills and mindset to create impactful solutions in the real world.

There's power in innovation. Everyone in the world has an equal opportunity to use their brains and their exposure to a problem in proximity to solve problems. So having all these 70 brilliant minds from all over Africa come here and get access to these business skills, we can certainly bet that they'll go back to their communities and make a change.

For the University of Edinburgh participants, the journey doesn’t have to end there. At Edinburgh Innovations, they can take advantage of a range of support for up to two years after graduating:

1-to-1 business advice meetings with our specialist business advisers

Support with accessing funding

Workshops and training programmes

Business Idea Competitions

Networking events

Startup Summer Accelerator

Venture Builder Incubator

Creating change through equal partnership

Founded through the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, the partnership between Edinburgh and Wits fosters mutual respect, learning, and resource sharing.

Our two institutions share a long-standing and dynamic partnership. Often, we reflect on ourselves as “equal partners in an inequal world”. We are bound by common values and a commitment to harnessing knowledge together that will create real change in society. We’ve worked together with Wits across many different equitable collaborative projects particularly in priority research areas related to inequality studies, health informatics, digital innovation, rangeland management, sustainability, enterprise and innovation. The partnership withstands the highs and lows associated with international collaborations as it is built on a long-standing connection that fosters trust and understanding.

The power of partnership and perspectives

For student-entrepreneurs in Johannesburg, the Enterprise School underscored the importance of collaborative effort in fostering innovation and development in Africa and the power of diverse perspectives and intensive hands-on learning in tackling real-world challenges.

The partnership between the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Edinburgh exemplifies how collaboration can generate high-value outcomes, empowering students with crucial skills and mindsets. It equips African leaders to drive societal change, and reinforced our shared vision, to champion extensive research partnerships, joint teaching initiatives, and shared resources.