Denis Opudo
Co-working space simply means the ability of two or more enterprises to share working area. It is one of the emerging business trends in Africa. The system is mainly practiced in Europe, Asia, and America. The enterprise comes along with basic amenities such as boardrooms, front office desk space, toilets kitchen and other social amenities.
In Accra Ghana’s capital city, the approximated office rent sum up to $1.63/square foot. This amount is much higher than office rents in Atlanta and Dallas. The alarming costs of office rent usually discourage startups operations in the city. Workshed Africa Limited has currently launched co-working space along the Spintex Road which is a busy highway in the city.
According to Andrew Bimpong and Richard Bempong, the idea was developed during hard times of securing office space. Capital access to finance the project was the main challenge. The project creates a suitable working environment for collaboration and dialogue among startups. Workshed is open to all startups and people looking for office spaces the country. The system comes packed with wifi, a printer, mailing, and telephone services among others. Recently, there are more than six companies utilizing workshed facilities in the city.
Richard noted the fundamental benefits of using the system as economic viability, effective networking environment. Normally, no firm wishes to spend a lot of its capital in renting office space. A Workshed initiative is the best option for upcoming start-ups with limited income since it is cost- friendly. He also emphasized that co-working spaces can be used with many companies with different capacities and specializations. The system thus helps in knowledge acquisition and building of a strong relationship among the factories. The project indicators show a growth prospect due to a long period of political stability in the country rapid support from startups. In spite of small capital work shed relative to Asia, America and Europe standards, the startup has remarkable performance. The initiative is assumed to transform the Ghanaian startup ecosystem in the near future.
