Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) has started its recruitment drive in South Africa this week with a call for techies and entrepreneurs to enlist for training and funding through its fully sponsored 12 month program in Accra, Ghana from August 2017.

Kelechi Udoagwu, ‎Communications & Recruitment Manager at MEST says the 2017 edition of the program will expose the entrepreneurs to new and diverse cultures, build them to become globally competitive, and make them eligible to receive seed-funding from USD $50,000 up to $100,000 from the Meltwater Foundation.

"Recruiting from South Africa, in addition to Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Cote D'ivoire is a deliberate move by MEST to create a pan-African network and curate a rich pool of talent and ideas. MEST aims to increase the rate of entrepreneurship adoption amongst African youth, drive more external investment to the continent, and in 2018 launch an Incubator in Johannesburg or Cape Town for MEST-graduated South African entrepreneurs to build a base and work on home soil."

She adds that applicants must have have a deep passion to build a globally successful software company, years of entrepreneurial or corporate work experience and be able to commit spending a year in Accra in order to become eligible for selection.

The plans to establish an Incubator in South Africa next year and follow a decision last month to add Ivory Coast to the four African countries taking part in the program starting this year.

Celine Duros, ‎Director of Operations & Partnerships at MEST told ITWeb Africa that the launch in Ivory Coast was spurred by the country's promising technology sector and high levels of interest from young Ivorians.

"The interest levels we've seen from tech enthusiasts across francophone Africa in general even prior to our announcement has been very encouraging. Our research and findings clearly showed an opportunity within the areas of capacity building; and as we have done across selected english speaking sub saharan Africa, our mission in Côte d'Ivoire is to create wealth and jobs locally through training, mentoring and funding young Ivorians who have the interest in starting software companies that can impact the world."

MEST's portfolio on the African continent includes a church management startup called Asoriba and Meqasa which is a Ghana-based real-estate portal.