Surprising solution by Safi Sana team wins NBC 2016

After an intense study week in Ghana, the New Business Challenge Ghana 2016 ended with a nerve-wracking finale. All teams presented their solutions at the residency of the Dutch ambassador in Accra and showed what they had been working on in the last months. The Safi Sana team ETS (Education Through Sanitation) won the 2016 edition of the New Business Challenge, by presenting their idea to stimulate toilet use.

Safi Sana provided their teams with difficult task, mainly focused on their toilet block facility in Teshie. People continuously dumped rubbish and defecated in the beach next to the toilet block, where other people used to swim and play. An innovative solution was needed and provided by the Safi Sana team of Paula Beens, Richard Nti Ampofo, Jeffrey Vos and Tiniwah Mensah. Team ETS used customer surveys to investigate the problem and found that education, rewarding and experience improvement were the key to a profitable and successful business in Teshie.

Landmapp

The Landmapp team worked on different ways to use farmer data for communication and production purposes. With the solutions presented by the teams, Landmapp can now further develop an expert-to-farmer Interactive Voice Response service that personalizes content for specific farmer profiles.

Maxim Nyansa IT Solutions

While the first team mainly focused on the Kumasi training center of IT startup Maxim Nyansa, the second team decided to make a tailor-made solution to fit each school. Both solutions enhanced the profitability of Maxim Nyansa by collaborating with private sector companies and private schools.

WAKAWAKA / Tony’s Chocolonely

For WAKAWAKA and Tony’s Chocolonely, teams developed a financial and sustainable distribution model to combine WAKAWAKAs solar lamps with Tony’s cocoa farmers. Their innovative ‘Buy one, sponsor one’ principle was developed after the team discovered that the devices were too expensive for farmers. By shifting parts of the costs from farmers to companies and guaranteeing affordability of the device, a large group of cocoa farmers will be able to ‘share the sun’.

Koudijs

Customer and brand loyalty are at the heart of the solutions for the Koudijs business case. By expanding their distribution system with separate regional wholesale points (and brands) for fish and poultry feed, Koudijs will be able to serve both markets while maintaining good relationships with their retailers. By suggesting training and loyalty programs, the teams tried to develop a sales distribution model that attracts and maintains a sustainable customer relationship.

During the studytrip in Ghana and the exciting finale, companies could see the potential of the participating teams. The sustainable and innovative trading and investing solutions for the Ghanaian market will therefore be implemented by the companies as an effect of the hard work of all the participants. An unforgettable experience has come to an end. What a journey!