How Wiatta Thomas helps launch dozens of privat sector impact businesses through non-profit incubator Dare to Innovate in Conakry, Guinea

Wiatta moved from the US where she was born and raised to Conakry, Guinea in 2011.

She moved because she had decided to make it her life’s work to invest in the continent and to convince other Africans to do the same. Her in was with the Peace Corps as a Community Economic Development Volunteer, where she worked on an entrepreneurship training programme to reduce unemployment in West Africa.

Through this programme she realised that the ecosystem was so highly underdeveloped that it was hard for young people to launch a business with only that initial training.

Those that do manage to launch their businesses fail after one cycle, or survive but struggle to make real revenue.

In her experience, this is because they lack the resources to manage the whole value chain from input to market. Thus, Wiatta co-founded Dare to Innovate in 2013 to provide a solution to the question: how do we develop the African ecosystem in a way that supports entrepreneurship?

So far they have started over 60 businesses that are still active. Have helped to create more than 450 jobs and have trained thousands of young people.

Keep listening to gain deeper insights

• on the programmes that Dare to Innovate runs,
• the unique business model and the philosophy behind it,
• Wiatta's take on why projects in Africa by development agencies don’t have sustainable impact,
• her assessment on what will lead to economic development in Africa,

and much more.

We hope you'll enjoy this episode. Enter Wiatta.

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For the full blogpost and other posts, go to the AfricaX Blog where we share all of the interviews with Changemakers in Africa.

Also, you can head over to the site of Dare to Innovate for more information.

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