For any aspiring tech giant, setting foot on the coveted ground of the Silicon Valley is like entering Hollywood for the aspiring actor. A veritable hot bed for up and coming technology, Silicon Valley serves as a who’s who of past, present, and future industry players.

The prospect of an undeveloped African country gaining footing in the tech industry seems far-fetched. For three young men from Ghana, however, their dreams of entering the industry are coming to fruition sooner than expected. While, for many in Ghana, having a home computer is still not a reality, Ghanaian entrepreneurs, David Osei, Kamil Nabong, and Philips Efah are bringing their startup Dropifi to Silicon Valley.

Through the unique mentoring program, 500 Startups, Osei, Nabong, and Efah have been awarded a four-month boot camp in Silicon Valley where they will learn all angles of the startup industry. At its heart, 500 startups is a venture capital firm aimed at building the next generation of startups from the ground up. With their inclusion of the Ghana trio, however, the firm has begun to set their sights beyond Silicon Valley, and into the developing world.

With the goal of streamlining businesses contact forms, Dropify, aims to provide a seemingly underutilized resource to businesses the world over. Despite worldly ambitions, however, the group has kept their feet firmly rooted on the ground and hopes to bring the brunt of business back to Ghana. “I never thought of moving to the Valley as soon as this, because basically we want to build a global startup company right from Ghana that is going to service the whole world,” Osei told CNN.

While there remains a lot of work for the four entrepreneurs, they have their goals set. Osei went on to tell CNN, “Our immediate goal is building a sustainable product that is going to deliver continuous value to our business,” says Osei. “Currently we are focused on the U.S. and international market – the U.S., U.K., Canada – but in a couple of years we want to become leaders in Africa.”

For a country such as Ghana, the hope of entering into the tech industry certainly serves as a goal worth fighting for. With globalized free trade, serving as a business hub in Africa will certainly be a boon to the country’s economy as well as surrounding African countries.

– Thomas van der List

Sources: CNN, Government of Ghana, 500
Photo: The Guardian