A young Ghanaian, David Harrlley, has established a free online platform  to provide training and networking opportunities for budding entrepreneurs in Africa.

The business start up named Think Startup  connects Africa-based entrepreneurs with a team of expert advisors and mentors, for free.

The Not-for-profit Think Startup also runs on-the-ground workshops to provide training and networking opportunities for budding entrepreneurs in Africa.

Africans display the highest levels of entrepreneurial intention in the world according to the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.

75% of working-age adults in Africa consider entrepreneurship a good career choice. But support infrastructure and entrepreneurial education in Africa is lacking.

David Harrlley, a recent graduate from IE Business School’s full-time MBA program, has set out to fix this problem.

Not-for-profit Think Startup also runs on-the-ground workshops to provide training and networking opportunities for budding entrepreneurs in Africa.

David worked for seven years as a mechanical engineer in Canada before relocating to Spain for his MBA.

Speaking about the idea behind establishing Think Startup, David revealed that his idea came from  experience gathered back home in Ghana

"By the time I was halfway through the program, I realized I had learned an awful lot. I simultaneously was being exposed to some of the ideas that my friends in Ghana had," he said.

"While some of them were brilliant, there seemed to be a clear lack of a roadmap.

"I have always thought it would be interesting to start a business in Ghana or another African country to help development efforts."

At IE, I thought, how could I be even more effective by replicating myself, or rather replicate the knowledge I have gained through the program, through the process of creating a startup?

"We want to contribute to the development of the Startup Ecosystem in Africa, and build a strong brand for ourselves in the area of entrepreneurship training.

"In order that our team of advisors have a dedication to all startups - not just those with higher potential - we made the decision to run Think Startup as a not-for-profit," he added.

For the young Ghanaian, the biggest barrier to the success of an entrepreneur is not a lack of funding, but a lack of knowledge. He wants to transfer the business knowledge he picked up at Spain’s top business school – ranked eighth in the world by the Financial Times - to new generations of African entrepreneurs.

By:Fiifi Abdul Malik