The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC), that is led by the World Bank with support from Denmark and the Netherlands, helped Desmond Koney start his entrepreneurship. Mechanical engineer, Desmon Koney, has a passion to help solve one of humanity’s greatest challenge: climate change. Together with partners Andrew Quartey, a computer engineer, and Collins Amoah-Antwi, biochemist, he started Cibus Technologies Limited, a company that provides renewable energy technology solutions.
Today, the company is ready to commercialize their maiden product GIZZEO Biogas System that solves waste and energy issues in residential homes by recycling kitchen waste into cooking fuel and garden fertilizer. Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC), a World Bank-led implemented programme with funding from the Danish and Netherlands government, has helped the three entrepreneurs.
“GCIC is one of the few accelerators in Ghana that are doing well at providing an end to end framework for entrepreneurs. When we started working with GCIC we only had an idea and it would have been very hard to realize it without their help,” says Desmond Koney.
A turning point
Desmond Koney graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2013. After graduation, he started working on different energy projects in rural areas. Despite the large variety of projects, he realized that many rural areas had the same ‘hidden’ energy source- organic waste. An idea had now been planted in his head but it was not until his high school friend Collins Amoah-Antwi’s mom died of cholera due to bacteria from organic waste, the idea for GIZZEO Biogas System gained traction.
Desmond Koney decided to apply to the GCIC programme.
“GCIC has helped me a lot. They offered relevant courses, expert facilitators, financial support and created lots of opportunities to showcase biodigesters to investors,” he explains.
Even though the GIZZEO Biogas System is now ready to be commercialized, Desmond Koney will still continue his collaboration with GCIC. He hopes his product can contribute to solving the world’s climate problems.
“My co-founders and I have the philosophy that whilst it is difficult to change a human being there, is a need to build better products to make human beings more adaptable to climate change. We have done this with the help of GCIC and we now hope we can make African lives better”.
GCIC is a pioneering business incubator with a unique focus of developing SME ventures and entrepreneurs in Ghana’s ‘Green Economy’. Their mission is to develop and support an exceptional set of transformational ventures and entrepreneurs who are pioneering adaptive and mitigating solutions for climate change issues in Ghana. They focus on five key economic sectors (energy efficiency & renewable energy; solar power; climate smart agriculture; domestic waste management; water management and purification). The services provided by GCIC includes the provision of premium business advisory and business mentoring services, technical support in the development, prototyping and testing of their innovation, as well as financial Proof of Concept grants to qualifying SMEs within our incubator.
