The Hive Tribe

We had the wonderful opportunity of hosting the Managing Associate of Kumasi Hive, Maurice Caschinco. Maurice grew up in Accra and comes from a family of 5 and obtained his basic school through University Education in Accra. He has experience as a program coordinator for an NGO based in Accra. He's one person who sees himself as someone who wants to do greater good. His need to break from the routine and experience impact first-hand makes him love to work with NGO's and Not-for-Profit Organizations. Maurice shares his experience as a leader with us in this episode and gives good tips that would come in handy to every leader or person aspiring to be a leader in the future. Listen in and share your views with us. Happy Listening #HiveTribe Find out more about Maurice Caschinco at @Nii_Caschinco on Twitter, Maurice Caschinco on Facebook, Maurice Nii Adjei Cashico on LinkedIn, and maurice_caschinco on Instagram. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @kumasihive Website: kumasihive.com Email: info@kumasihive.com Beats by Bryan Stanley - souncloud.com/bryanstanley21 Hosted by Amfo-Kwakye David

We had the wonderful opportunity of hosting the Managing Associate of Kumasi Hive, Maurice Caschinco. Maurice grew up in Accra and comes from a family of 5 and obtained his basic school through University Education in Accra. He has experience as a program coordinator for an NGO based in Accra. He's one person who sees himself as someone who wants to do greater good. His need to break from the routine and experience impact first-hand makes him love to work with NGO's and Not-for-Profit Organizations. With a background in Marketing, Maurice brings over a lot of knowledge gathered over the years so he can make sure whatever service we provide to people as an organization is sustainable. Over the years, he's grown to be a leader in whatever sphere he finds himself due to the incredible experiences he's had while growing up. As a person who cares much about the Environment, he volunteers when he has the opportunity and he's had the opportunity to volunteer for world-class organizations. As part of his role, he oversees every activity of all workers at the Hive, writes proposals, manages startups and their teams as well as ensuring every project meets its Key performance Indicators daily and ensures there is team unity and growth as a business as well as ensuring the Hive grows beyond where it is now. He admits that managing people isn't easy. It's a task that would test your patience but help you improve as a person and thus must be embraced well. Maurice also believes we're all leaders and we lead in our specific areas of influence. Other Mentions: USAID, Nestle Ghana, Vivo Energy, Kumasi Hive Find out more about Maurice Caschinco at @Nii_Caschinco on Twitter, Maurice Caschinco on Facebook, Maurice Nii Adjei Cashico on LinkedIn and maurice_caschinco on Instagram. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @kumasihive Website: kumasihive.com Email: info@kumasihive.com Beats by Bryan Stanley - souncloud.com/bryanstanley21 Hosted by Amfo-Kwakye David

Season 1 on the Hive Podcast was incredible. If you haven't listened to the episodes there, kindly do. Season 2 is here. It's better and bigger, don't miss out on any of our episode releases starting this March. The Hive Tribe is growing and the discussions are getting interesting. Watch out. Thanks to our incredible beatmaker @Bryan Stanley. Follow him on Soundcloud.

In this second part of our conversation with Arnold and Acapella, Acapella takes us through how to use the Solar Taxi App and how women empowerment can create spaces for women in the world of Technology. The app can be downloaded on the Google Playstore, installed onto one's phone and one gets the opportunity to sign up, log in and go green. She started off as an intern with the Kumasi Hive Software Team and through that has built on her App Development skills and she's excelling in that. With the App, it can be used when one wants to order any of the Vehicles based on one's preference. You can order a ride when you have to go somewhere, there are also delivery apps, where you can order a ride to do your deliveries for you. So when you place an order, a rider picks it up and brings it to a destination at a cheaper price. Existing Apps doesn't give you the liberty to pick your ride of choice, but the Solar Taxi App gives you the opportunity to choose which vehicle you want. The aim of the project was not to make profit but to break even. So with the slash in transportation costs, people will patronize and help tackle the issue of Global warming and give them the feel of Solar Powered Vehicles. The project aims at achieving some SDG Goals namely, 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 13. Support the #Africa4CleanTransport Movement by patronizing a SolarTaxi Service today. Send Questions and Comments to @SolarTaxiGh on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @kumasihive Website: kumasihive.com Email: info@kumasihive.com Beats by Bryan Stanley - souncloud.com/bryanstanley21 Hosted by Alexxa Walker and Koeman Tekpeh

We share with you the first part of our Conversation with Arnold Anokye, the Operations Manager for the Kumasi Branch of the SolarTaxi Project. We shared more on the Solar Powered Initiative and how it is taking part in the #Africa4CleanTransport Movement. The vehicles are quiet, sleek and most importantly, don't run on fuel. In the conversation, we touched on the Kumasi Hive YouTube page (@KumasiHive) as well as the Shenzhen Ready-Made Design for Girls Training program that seeks to train 6 young entrepreneurs in up and coming technologies namely Artificial Intelligence, Web and Mobile Development, Graphic Design, Electronics, and Business Development. They have successfully started a company called Exiteck where they are into the Assembly, installation, monitoring and sale of IP Cameras. On the SolarTaxi Project, Arnold speaks on what the SolarTaxi Project is all about and how the introduction of Electric Vehicles (Cars and Motobikes) were going a long way to cushion the transportation industry in terms of reducing the dangerous fumes released by fuel powered vehicles. These fumes cause pollution and contribute to global warming as well as has additional effects on our health and as such the need to introduce these vehicles. On how it benefits the community, he explained that the vehicles being powered electrically helps but this time, they have built SolarHubs that are locally built solar panels connected to inverters and batteries to convert the trapped sun rays into electricity for charging the vehicles. These Solar Hubs then can be used to charge the vehicles saving us from using our electricity to charge the vehicles. Being a country that finds ourselves in the tropics, there is an abundance of solar energy that we haven't harnessed to the best ability we can. Hence, the importance of using renewable energy in a country like Ghana so complement the electricity is supplied from our dam. He further explained that the cars use no fuel whatsoever but have batteries that power the vehicles. They also come with air conditioning that helps keep you cool. There are two business models that were tested during the piloting phase. The first being the delivery service (two-wheeled motorbike, tricycle, and car) that uses the SolarTaxi App that can be delivered to make an order for a service that would be delivered to you. The cost of delivery has been slashed in two comparing the normal rates that are charged by other service providers. The vehicles can also be purchased when one fills a form on the SolarTaxi Website (www.solartaxi.co) or by walking into the SolarTaxi Offices based in both Accra and Kumasi. You are tasked to pay a commitment fee before the order is taken and then when the vehicle is delivered, the rest of the amount is settled or a payment plan is drawn for you to be able to settle the remaining amount. The car is being sold at GHS 25,000, the tricycle goes for GHS 8,000, the pragyia (covered tricycle) with solar pane is being sold at GHS 20,000, the motorbikes go for GHS 6000 and GHS 7000 depending on the sizes. On charging when one is on a journey or finds himself or herself in town. He mentioned that there are different Charging stations situated in various parts of the city (Accra and Kumasi for now) for charging when your battery is running low. Lastly, he mentioned that there are plans in place o train engineers and mechanics to help fix the vehicles as and when the vehicles develop a fault. Other mentions: Kantanka Automobile Company Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @kumasihive Website: kumasihive.com Email: info@kumasihive.com Beats by Bryan Stanley - souncloud.com/bryanstanley21 Hosted by Alexxa Walker and Koeman Tekpeh

We bring you the last part of our conversation on Cross-cultural exchanges with Pursodman Ramachandran and Charles-Olivier Jacques, two junior fellows from Engineers Without Borders Canada. They had their internship with Kumasi Hive and were leaving back to Canada. In this final of three parts, we talk about their Experiences working at Kumasi Hive and some lessons they hoped to take back home with them to Canada. We also discussed what it meant to be pushing boundaries when you find yourself in an area that is not your comfort zone. We picked lessons from them as well, the most important being that attitude trumps intelligence and giving ear to the stories people share of their experiences and learning from it. Find out more about Pursodman Ramachandran at @pursodman_ramachandran on Instagram and on Facebook and Charles-Olivier Jacques on @charlo_jacques on Instagram and on Facebook Find out more about Engineers without Borders, Canada via www.ewb.ca and @ewb on Twitter, @ewbcanada on Facebook and @ewb_canada on Instagram. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @kumasihive Website: kumasihive.com Email: info@kumasihive.com Beats by Bryan Stanley - souncloud.com/bryanstanley21 Hosted by Alexxa Walker

For this week's episode, we explore the second part of Cross-cultural exchanges with Pursodman Ramachandran and Charles-Olivier Jacques, two junior fellows from Engineers Without Borders Canada. They had their internship with Kumasi Hive and were leaving back to Canada. In this second of three parts, we talk about their perspectives and views of the country and their expectations before coming to Ghana and Africa, how their backgrounds informed and shaped their experiences in Ghana. We also touched on the need for skills exchange as a means to grow the skill for Ghanaians and Africans for the development of individual countries and societies. Lastly, we touched on the representation of Africa in the media. They share their experiences of what the media thought of the country and how coming down, they realize the need for an open mind to first-hand experience a country for oneself and gain one's own experiences void of the media negativity and twist where they may be. Find out more about Pursodman Ramachandran at @pursodman_ramachandran on Instagram and on Facebook and Charles-Olivier Jacques on @charlo_jacques on Instagram and on Facebook Find out more about Engineers without Borders, Canada via www.ewb.ca and @ewb on Twitter, @ewbcanada on Facebook and @ewb_canada on Instagram. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @kumasihive Website: kumasihive.com Email: info@kumasihive.com Beats by Bryan Stanley - souncloud.com/bryanstanley21 Hosted by Alexxa Walker

For this week's episode, we explore Cross-cultural exchanges with Pursodman Ramachandran and Charles-Olivier Jacques, two junior fellows from Engineers Without Borders Canada. They had their internship with Kumasi Hive and were leaving back to Canada. In this first of three parts, we talk about their initial impressions of Ghana and how cross-cultural exchanges can be leveraged to enrich your experiences in and out of the workplace. Cross-cultural exchanges are everywhere ranging from the food we eat to the clothes we wear to the music we listen to among others. There is no one single definition of what Cross-Cultural Exchange is but it encompasses everything that makes a particular culture unique and we can share and interact with. It is so prevalent in all that we do. They also share their expectations when they arrived here in Ghana and how they were met. Find out more about Pursodman Ramachandran at @pursodman_ramachandran on Instagram and on Facebook and Charles-Olivier Jacques on @charlo_jacques on Instagram and on Facebook Find out more about Engineers without Borders, Canada via www.ewb.ca and @ewb on Twitter, @ewbcanada on Facebook and @ewb_canada on Instagram. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @kumasihive Website: kumasihive.com Email: info@kumasihive.com Beats by Bryan Stanley - souncloud.com/bryanstanley21 Hosted by Alexxa Walker

We had the incredible opportunity of hosting the President and CEO of the Mastercard Foundation, Reeta Roy. Under her leadership, the foundation has gained worldwide recognition for their work in women empowerment and education while committing over 2.2 billion dollars to advance education and financial inclusion in Africa. The Mastercard Foundation is one of the top five organizations in the world. In less than 15 years, Mastercard Foundation has grown from a small “start-up” with just three employees to one of the largest foundations in the world and committed over US$2.2 billion while improving the lives of more than 33.8 million people and their families. These are some very impressive numbers. Reeta grew up in Malaysia and has found herself on a trajectory to leadership through the help of her mother. She believes that Africa is an amazing, dynamic, and vibrant continent characterized by huge change and significant progress in digital innovation. She added that Africa, as the youngest population in the world, will become the world's workforce in a few years. The first decade of the foundation's work has provided financial support to over 30 countries across the continent. They have been partners with Kumasi Hive as we spearhead the Green Energy Revolution in Ghana by introducing Solar Vehicles to help reduce transportation challenges as well as give a voice to ladies through our Female Drivers' Academy, which seeks to train young ladies to drive and ride our SolarTaxi's. On leadership, Reeta shares what it takes to be a leader of one of the top five organizations in the world and how one can be a great leader. For this second part of our interview, we discussed Green Energy and the SolarTaxi Project. We also touched on Women in leadership and the multiplying effect they have in our communities. We also talk about how Trotro Tractor and Farmerline are significantly changing how we work by providing a sharable product for farmers to use as well as providing climate-resistant crops and introducing new methods of farming. Find out more about Reeta Roy at @reetaroymcf on Twitter and the Mastercard Foundation via mastercardfdn.org and @MastercardFdn on Twitter and @mastercardfoundation on Facebook and Instagram. Follow Trotro Tractor on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @Trotrotractor Follow Farmerline on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @farmerline Follow Solar Taxi Gh on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @SolarTaxigh Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @kumasihive Website: kumasihive.com Email: info@kumasihive.com Beats by Bryan Stanley - souncloud.com/bryanstanley21 Hosted by Alexxa Walker

We had the incredible opportunity of hosting the President and CEO of the Mastercard Foundation, Reeta Roy. Under her leadership, the foundation has gained worldwide recognition for their work in women empowerment and education while committing over 2.2 billion dollars to advance education and financial inclusion in Africa. The Mastercard Foundation is one of the top five organizations in the world. In less than 15 years, Mastercard Foundation has grown from a small “start-up” with just three employees to one of the largest foundations in the world and committed over US$2.2 billion while improving the lives of more than 33.8 million people and their families. These are some very impressive numbers. Reeta grew up in Malaysia and has found herself on a trajectory to leadership through the help of her mother. She believes that Africa is an amazing, dynamic, and vibrant continent characterized by huge change and significant progress in digital innovation. She added that Africa, as the youngest population in the world, will become the world's workforce in a few years. The first decade of the foundation's work has provided financial support to over 30 countries across the continent. For this episode on the Hive Podcast, which is the first part of the interview, we talk about the Mastercard foundation, what they do, and how they are improving the lives of youth. Find out more about the Reeta Roy and the Mastercard Foundation via mastercardfdn.org and @MastercardFdn on Twitter and @mastercardfoundation on Facebook and Instagram. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @kumasihive Website: kumasihive.com Email: info@kumasihive.com Beats by Bryan Stanley - souncloud.com/bryanstanley21 Hosted by Alexxa Walker

We took a short break to create and incubate but we're back with a new episode on the Hive podcast. For this episode, we put on our lab coats with Dr. Chiara Gandini and Harry Akligoh to talk about the Open Bioeconomy Lab. The Open Bioeconomy Lab is a multifaceted global lab that seeks to create a sustainable, open and equitable bioeconomy in Africa. We talk about their work on and off the continent, the importance of biology and research in Africa, and some of the breakthroughs in the world of Open bioeconomy that have been materialized over the last year, such as the Bio Summit, Synthetic Cafe and Africa OSH. [Thank you to Bryan Stanley for providing us with the freshest beats! Check him out on soundcloud here] Chiara Gandini is a Genetic Engineer passionate in synthetic biology and the fascinating world of bacteria. Within the Open Bioeconomy lab, she is developing tools to enable biotechnology in low-resource contexts, including helping to select genetic parts to be included the Open Enzyme project and cloning libraries of genetic constructs to prototype protocols for the low-cost expression and purification of enzymes through large scale cell-free protein synthesis and 3D printed devices. Get in touch with Chiara Gandini via Open Bioeconomy here and Twitter here. Harry Akligoh is the co-founder of the Hive BioLab, a Researcher with the Open Bioeconomy Lab and Technical Associate at Kumasi Hive in Ghana. At present he is mobilizing the open science community in Africa through the Africa Open Science Hardware Summit (Africa OSH) to democratize the use and adoption of DIY Bio and community biotechnology to drive biology research necessary for harnessing the power of Africa's biotechnology industry in education and research. Connect with Harry Akligoh via Open Bioeconomy here and Twitter here. Find out more about the Open Bioeconomy Lab here and the Hive Biolab. Our Jams Dangote by Burna Boy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCPy1jvOp90 Don't Make me Wait by Shaggy and Sting - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rEBT_Ge3sc Ye by Burna Boy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPe09eE6Xio Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @kumasihive Website: kumasihive.com Email: info@kumasihive.com Beats by Bryan Stanley - souncloud.com/bryanstanley21 Hosted by Alexxa Walker

The world of Tech and Innovation is continuously growing and this is especially true when it comes to the industry in Ghana. With Kumasi being the biggest tech city in Ghana, we are in an extremely interesting space to be having this conversation. In our first episode of the Hive Podcast, I talk tech and innovation with Kumasi Hive Technical Associate and amateur skateboarder extraordinaire, Prince Banini. [Beats by Bryan Stanley!] Prince shares three projects and initiatives that he has been working on related to the theme of the week: the National Mobile App Hackathon, Bridge the Gap IoT and Waziup. National Mobile App Hackathon The Hackathon brought 48 innovators from 7 regions in the country for a 5 day National Mobile App competition in Accra. The Hackathon saw 11 groups of young Ghanaians awarded with a total of $100 000 USD and 2 months of incubation to assist them with developing their ideas. Bridge the Gap: Internet of Things (IoT) Bridging the Digital Gender Divide for Future of jobs in Africa (Bridge the Gap) focuses on developing a pool of innovators and entrepreneurs by providing them with training in digital technologies including 3D printing, web development and internet of things (IoT), spaces, tools and access to mentors. We had 24 women participate in the IoT cohort, out of which 14 have joined organisations as interns and ten have transitioned into Kumasi Hive's incubation program to fully develop their ideas and possibly start businesses of their own. WAZIUP https://www.waziup.eu/ WAZIUP is a European Union-Africa project developing IoT technologies in Africa. The WAZIUP project uses cutting edge technology from IoT and Big Data to improve the working conditions in the rural ecosystem of Sub-Saharan Africa. First, WAZIUP involves end users of IoT and Big Data in order to define focused validation cases. Secondly, it engages the ICT ecosystem by fostering new tools and good practices amongst entrepreneurs and start-ups. Spotlight: Big Invents The Big invents team seeks to provide an IoT wearable technology that wards off mosquitoes using far infrared light within 2 metres. This would reduce the number of malaria cases among Ghanaians in mosquito prone areas and would allow for people to carry out their outdoor activities comfortably and safely. Mavis Kusi and Adwoa Opoku Agyeman are co-founders of Big Invents and winners of the BTG GHS 10,000.00 seed fund. Women in Tech: Remember these names! Regina Hohnu, Founder of Soronko Solutions - Ghana A software development powerhouse and a social enterprise that helps Small and medium Scale Enterprises in Ghana create visibility and grow their business with technology. Jamila Abass, Linda Kwamboka and Susan Oguya, Co-founders of MFarm - Kenya Abass, Kwamboka and Oguya are the founders of MFarm, a mobile software solution that connects Kenyan farmers with farm produce consumers in urban and export markets via SMS . Anne Amuzu, Co-founder of Nandimobile - Ghana Amuzu, a graduate of Ghana's Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) is a co-founder of Nandimobile, a company that develops software that enables companies to deliver customer support and information services through SMS. https://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2014/03/25/10-female-tech-founders-to-watch-in-africa/ Our Jams Melanin by Sauti Sol - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8LFwC1nEpU Firm and Strong by Popcaan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rEBT_Ge3sc Connect with Us Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @kumasihive Wesbsite: news.kumasihive.com Email: info@kumasihive.com Beats by Bryan Stanley - souncloud.com/bryanstanley21

We are officially launching our Hive Podcast! In this podcast, we'll be going deeper into topics relating to tech, innovation, science and entrepreneurship through discussions with our community members and experts. Look alive #HiveTribe, we are coming to a pair of headphones near you! Join us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to take part of the conversation. That's @kumasihive on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.