The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) today officially announced its plans for French-speaking African countries when it revealed that is recruiting Entrepreneurs-In-Training (EITs) from Côte d’Ivoire, the first French-speaking country in which MEST will have a presence. It said it will be making the announcement public at the Africa Web Festival in Côte d’Ivoire, taking place 30th November- 1st December, in front of 6,000 attendees.
It described the expansion into Côte d’Ivoire as a strategic move for MEST, marking a foothold in its fifth African country, and bridging the gap between the English-speaking and French-speaking African economies to expand the tech ecosystem even further.
With the addition of Côte d’Ivoire, MEST is now accepting applications from Ivorians, Ghanaians, Kenyans, Nigerians and South Africans who wish to spend a year at the flagship campus in Accra, Ghana to take part in an intensive entrepreneurial training program, launch their own software startup, and pitch to receive seed funding from the Meltwater Foundation.
According to a statement, MEST said its expansion strategy remains the same: a phased rollout of incubators in key economic centers on the continent, replicating the successful operating model and expanding the power of the network for all MEST portfolio companies to quickly scale across Africa once they’ve found an idea that works.
