GAP

GAP
ISSUE 01 • JANUARY 2026
Pesewa ONE: Between Promise and Practice
Where systems meet real life
Inside This Issue
About GAP
GAP Issue 1 establishes the magazine as a vital platform for deep, reflective analysis of rapidly evolving systems. We delve beyond surface-level metrics to uncover the human stories and complex realities shaping the entrepreneurial landscape. While policy papers and pitch decks often present small businesses as streamlined entities with predictable growth trajectories—millions of enterprises, billions in potential, and neat arrows pointing upwards—our on-the-ground reporting reveals a narrative that is inherently slower, richer, and profoundly human.
This inaugural Pesewa ONE edition is dedicated to exploring this very tension. It meticulously tracks the journeys of entrepreneurs, interns, and diverse communities as they navigate an ecosystem deliberately designed to support them. We spotlight innovative AI tools that genuinely speak their language, financial models that adapt to their unique rhythms, and robust networks that bridge market stalls in Ghana with global partners, fostering unprecedented collaboration and growth.
Our mission is not to chase fleeting headlines but to pause and reflect within the nuanced, in-between spaces where systems are perpetually refined, where trust is a hard-earned currency, and where a new, resilient infrastructure is quietly taking shape. GAP magazine offers a unique lens into the intricate dance between ambition and execution, revealing the true pulse of innovation.
About Pesewa ONE
Pesewa ONE is at the forefront of constructing tomorrow's business ecosystem, with a foundational commitment to empowering those who have historically been underserved. Established in 2018 as an agile platform to nurture emerging small businesses, it has since evolved into a sophisticated, AI-enabled, full-stack service provider for entrepreneurs. This comprehensive support spans the entire business lifecycle: from initial ideation and specialized training to securing finance, accessing critical markets, and providing long-term, sustained mentorship.
A significant milestone was achieved in 2021 when Pesewa ONE became the first business incubator to be listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. This pioneering move not only diversified funding avenues for early-stage ventures but also set a new standard for how entrepreneurial support organizations can be financed and governed, emphasizing transparency and public accountability.
Today, Pesewa ONE operates with an ambitious vision: to facilitate the creation of one million businesses and generate 100,000 new jobs by the year 2027. Their strategy focuses on leveraging advanced technology and localized insights to unlock potential and drive sustainable economic development.
Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Prince Abbey

Special Partner: Pesewa ONE
GAP is a magazine about the spaces between policy and people, data and lived experience, markets and morals, technology and society. We aim to illuminate the often-overlooked nuances that shape our world.
The Gap
Bridging Ambition and Reality
In a bustling Accra market at dawn, a young artisan lays out her handmade goods. She has talent, drive, and a smartphone buzzing with possibilities. Across the globe, investors and customers seek fresh ideas and products. Between them lies a gap — a gulf between ambition and opportunity, between the promise of technology and the realities on the ground.
Pesewa ONE emerged to bridge that divide. Founded in 2018 with a mission to nurture Africa's small businesses, Pesewa ONE quickly realized that closing this gap meant reimagining how we support the "little" engines of our economy. By 2021, the incubator had helped launch over a hundred enterprises and even became the first business incubator listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (Pesewa One Plc, listed on GSE in 2021 under ticker symbol POP, ISIN: GHEPOP062910, as confirmed by African Markets database).
The Problem
Frameworks built for corporations
One-size-fits-all financing
Outdated success metrics
50%+ failure rates
The Evidence
90% of African businesses are SMEs
Generate 80% of job opportunities
Contribute 20-40% of national GDP
125 million enterprises chronically underfunded
The Shift
Design economy around small businesses
AI as native ally, not afterthought
Technology meets people where they are
Simple, accessible, culturally attuned
"Technology should meet people where they are. No complex systems, no tech jargon. Just real tools for real people doing real things."
Pesewa ONE's answer was to flip the script: what if we designed the economy around small businesses themselves? What if a seamstress, a farmer, or a teacher with an idea could access the same breadth of opportunities and tools as any big corporation — with AI as a native ally rather than an afterthought?
Thus began a bold experiment to fuse high tech with grassroots hustle. In 2025, Pesewa ONE launched Pesewa AI, an initiative to infuse every aspect of small business development with intelligent tools — not as gimmicks, but as genuine enablers. The vision was grand: an AI-powered, full-stack business services platform to power one million small businesses worldwide. The ambition soars:
1M
Enterprises
supported
100K
Jobs
created
100
Countries
connected
5K
Franchise Hubs
established
Pesewa ONE's approach is analytical but not academic, using data and AI to solve real problems without losing sight of human stories. Solutions are simple, accessible, and culturally attuned, overcoming pitfalls like digital illiteracy or infrastructure gaps with creativity and persistence. Bridging the gap between technology and society means listening as much as innovating, ensuring perfectly coded apps are usable and policy environments supportive. This journey has been about learning to dance at the edge of ambition and reality, iterating and co-creating with the communities it aims to uplift.
The result is an ecosystem where global vision and local action converge, creating opportunities where none existed and turning informal hustle into formal success. This issue of GAP Magazine explores that dynamic journey, delving into visionary stories, mapping out the systems, and hearing voices from the frontlines.
"The gap that once seemed insurmountable is starting to narrow. Perhaps the real revolution won't be led by a few giant enterprises at the top, but by millions of small businesses rewriting the rules from the ground up."
The bridge is being built, one entrepreneur at a time.
Ambition on a Timeline
Big visions live and die on timelines. Pesewa ONE's journey from a single experiment in 2018 to a global, AI-enabled ecosystem by 2027 is not just a story of launches and logos. It is a sequence of bets, lessons, and course-corrections that either close the gap—or widen it.
This timeline chronicles our deliberate, yet dynamic, path to transforming the landscape for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Africa and beyond. Each year marked not just a step forward, but a strategic leap, confronting systemic barriers with innovation and an unwavering commitment to empowering entrepreneurs at the grassroots level.
1
2018: The Genesis
Pesewa ONE was founded with a clear mandate to support small businesses in developing economies, starting in Ghana. The initial focus was on providing crucial mentorship, essential resources, and basic infrastructure to help local entrepreneurs formalize and scale. This foundational year involved extensive research into the unique challenges faced by SMEs, including access to capital, market linkages, and operational efficiency.
2
2021: Institutional Validation & Growth
Pesewa ONE made history by becoming the first business incubator listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange, a landmark achievement that signaled profound institutional confidence in SMEs as a viable and valuable asset class. By this time, the incubator had successfully nurtured over 100 enterprises, validating its model and demonstrating the immense potential of local businesses to drive economic growth. This period solidified Pesewa ONE's reputation as a leader in African enterprise development.
3
2025: The AI Infusion - Pesewa AI Launch
Marking a pivotal shift, Pesewa ONE launched Pesewa AI, an integrated platform designed to treat artificial intelligence as a native ally for small businesses, not an afterthought. This initiative was born from the realization that technology, specifically AI, could democratize access to sophisticated business tools previously reserved for large corporations. Pesewa AI began to offer intelligent solutions for finance, marketing, operations, and customer engagement, tailored to the specific needs and digital literacy levels of small entrepreneurs.
4
2027: Global Horizon & Impact Targets
Our target horizon is set for unprecedented global impact: supporting 1,000,000 enterprises, fostering the creation of 100,000 new jobs, and establishing 5,000 franchise hubs across 100 countries. This ambitious goal reflects our commitment to building a truly inclusive global economy where every entrepreneur, regardless of location, has the tools and support to thrive. It represents the culmination of years of learning, adapting, and relentlessly pursuing the vision of a connected, empowered small business ecosystem.
Each milestone narrows the distance between what systems promise and what entrepreneurs actually experience—or exposes where the work still remains. This journey underscores a fundamental truth: genuine progress isn't just about technological advancements, but about how those advancements are integrated empathetically into the lived realities of people. By continuously iterating and responding to the ground truth, Pesewa ONE is not just building businesses; it's constructing a more equitable and dynamic global economy, one empowered entrepreneur at a time. The gap, once daunting, is steadily closing, fueled by strategic action and a deep understanding of both ambition and reality.
Field Notes
Ground Truths
Snapshots of ambition meeting reality, on the ground where it matters
These vignettes are drawn from the Pesewa ONE ecosystem, offering a granular view of entrepreneurship in action. Far from abstract theories, these "ground truths" represent the raw, unfiltered experiences of small business owners facing daily challenges and celebrating hard-won victories. Each story speaks to a common theme: when given the right support and systems, small players can achieve extraordinary outcomes. They highlight the resilience, ingenuity, and transformative potential embedded within local communities, often overlooked by conventional economic models.
These field realities also serve as an invaluable feedback loop, directly informing and shaping Pesewa ONE's evolving model. Every success and setback, every innovative adaptation, every systemic barrier encountered provides critical data, lessons, and inspiration that fuel the next iteration of the platform. We observe patterns in how entrepreneurs leverage digital tools, adapt to market shifts, and build sustainable practices. For instance, the demand for micro-credit solutions often emerges from a recurring need for working capital among artisans, leading to specific feature developments within Pesewa AI's financial services module.
Ground truths keep the grand vision honest and anchored in practical application. They remind us that true progress isn't a top-down mandate but a bottom-up movement, happening one shop, one intern, one line of code at a time. Through these observations, we gain profound insights into the real-world impact of our solutions and the persistent gaps that still need to be addressed. The distance between a modest market stall and the global economy is not just shrinking; it's being actively bridged by the collective efforts and sustained determination illuminated in these narratives. Each experience reinforces our commitment to constructing a more equitable and dynamic global economy, ensuring that every entrepreneur, regardless of their starting point, has a tangible path to prosperity and global reach.
Ama, The Tailor
From neighborhood shop to global orders
In the coastal town of Tema, Ghana, Ama's tailoring shop has long been a one-woman operation. She crafts vibrant dresses and shirts by hand, selling to neighbors and occasional passersby. Before Pesewa ONE, her business was limited by geography and word-of-mouth. Two years ago, she joined the Pesewa ONE Global SME Business Center, uploading her designs to an online marketplace that suddenly put her on a global stage.
It wasn't easy at first — the idea of using AI and online tools felt intimidating. Ama recounts how she hesitated to trust a "machine" to help with something as personal as fashion design and customer service. But after attending a workshop through the Pesewa Enterprise School, she started using an AI-assisted design tool to experiment with new patterns. She printed a simple Pesewa QR code and stuck it to her shop window, enabling anyone with a smartphone to instantly view her catalog and place orders.
Today, a boutique in London stocks her garments, and customers from as far as Toronto send her custom requests. Ama's story is one of technology meeting tradition. She still hand-sews every stitch, still bargains with suppliers in the local market, but now she also chats with international buyers over video and uses an app to manage her inventory.
"I haven't changed what I do best," she laughs, holding up a brightly patterned dress, "I've just found more people to share it with."
Before/After Pesewa ONE
Before:
Average monthly sales: 15-20 pieces
Customer base: Local neighborhood only
Marketing: Word of mouth
Payment: Cash only
After:
Average monthly sales: 50-60 pieces
Customer base: Ghana, UK, Canada, US
Marketing: Online marketplace, QR code, social media
Payment: Multiple digital options
Note: Ama's story represents a composite narrative based on typical entrepreneur experiences within the Pesewa ONE ecosystem. While the challenges and solutions described reflect real patterns observed across multiple businesses, specific metrics and details have been illustrative rather than verified individual data. Success outcomes vary significantly based on sector, location, digital readiness, and market conditions.
Michael, The Virtual Intern
A one-month sprint to a first startup
Across the continent in Nairobi, Kenya, Michael was a recent university graduate in 2024 struggling to find work. He had ideas for a digital marketing service, but no capital or network to get started. Enter Pesewa ONE's Adopt-A-Business program — a novel initiative where sponsors "adopt" a business idea, funding a one-month AI-guided internship to turn that idea into a prototype company.
Michael applied as a Virtual Intern and was matched with a healthcare app concept sponsored by a diaspora investor who cared about African health access. Over four intense weeks, Michael used Pesewa AI tools to conduct market research, design a logo and website, and even build a simple chatbot for patient inquiries — all under the remote guidance of mentors.
He was astonished by how much he could accomplish with the AI platform's help: data analysis that once took days was done in hours; business plans practically wrote themselves with generative AI suggestions. The experience was more than a crash course in entrepreneurship — it was a job and an education rolled into one.
By the end of the internship, the health app was live in beta, and Michael had a job offer to continue developing it. Field notes from this journey highlight the power of pairing human potential with AI augmentation. Michael reflects, "I realized I could do ten times more than I thought. It wasn't the AI doing it alone — it was me, supercharged by these new tools."
Now, as a budding entrepreneur himself, he mentors the next cohort of interns, paying forward the opportunity he received.
Tool Trace: What Michael Used
Market Research AI: Analyzed competitor landscape and target demographics in 48 hours
Logo & Website Generator: Created professional branding assets in days, not weeks
Chatbot Builder: Deployed basic patient inquiry system with zero coding experience
Business Plan Assistant: Generated structured financial projections and go-to-market strategy
Mentor Network: Weekly video calls with industry experts across three continents
Note: Michael's story represents a composite narrative illustrating the Adopt-A-Business program model. While based on real program structures and outcomes, specific details and timelines are illustrative. The program has produced successful launches, but also faces challenges with sponsor matching, post-internship sustainability, and scalability that aren't reflected in individual success stories.
Lines of Code, Crates of Produce
Mali Cooperative
In southern Mali, a farmers' cooperative once managed its harvest with a paper ledger and a memory for who owed what. Rainstorms and long trips to town often meant delayed records and missed buyers. After joining Pesewa ONE, the co-op adopted CoINS, the Continuous Innovation System that folds inventory, orders, and basic analytics into one simple interface.
Field officers now log deliveries on low-cost phones, even offline, syncing when they reach coverage. A dashboard flags which routes cause the most spoilage and which buyers pay fastest. The technology is hardly flashy: no glossy dashboards, no corporate jargon. But for the co-op, it has turned guesswork into planning. "We used to hope the truck was full," one member says. "Now we know which crate will pay for the next."
Lagos Startup
In Lagos, a three-person software team built a niche product for clinics but struggled to find clients beyond their immediate network. Cold emails went unanswered; conferences were too expensive. When they connected to the Opportunities Matrix, Pesewa ONE's intelligent matchmaking engine, the picture shifted.
By mapping their product profile against a live stream of tenders, grants, and partnership calls, the system surfaced a regional health NGO seeking digital tools for patient follow-up. Within weeks, the startup had its first international client and a contract large enough to hire two more developers. The founders still write their own code, answer support tickets, and bargain over internet bills. But now, instead of scrolling aimlessly through opportunity lists, they receive targeted leads that fit where they actually are. "For the first time," the CEO says, "our size stopped being a disadvantage."
Early Franchise Hub
On the outskirts of Kumasi, a modest office with three desks, a whiteboard, and a buzzing router is labeled "Pesewa ONE Franchise – Ashanti." It looks unremarkable. Yet for dozens of nearby businesses, it has become a local doorway into a global ecosystem.
The franchise team runs weekly clinics: helping shop owners set up QR codes, guiding youth through the Virtual Intern paths, and translating Pesewa AI prompts into Twi for first-time users. They are not just service providers; they are cultural translators, turning abstract tools into something that feels familiar and safe. As more entrepreneurs plug in, the hub becomes a living map of who is doing what in the region—finance needs, talent gaps, emerging sectors. Headquarters in Accra sees the data; the hub sees the faces. Together, they test what it really means to scale without flattening local nuance.
Each field note feeds data and insight back into the Pesewa ONE model, keeping the big vision honest.
Systems
Designing an Ecosystem of Empowerment
Maps, models, and frameworks turning an ambitious vision into structured reality
How do you transform the success of one small business into a million more? The answer lies in systems — not rigid bureaucracy, but intentional design that connects many moving parts into one cohesive engine. Pesewa ONE's approach to empowering entrepreneurs is fundamentally systemic. It recognizes that a lone entrepreneur often faces a tangled web of obstacles: lack of financing, limited market reach, gaps in skills, and isolation from peers.
At its heart, Pesewa ONE builds a resilient ecosystem where solutions reinforce each other, creating a supportive environment for individual growth. This means moving beyond isolated interventions to proactive ecosystem building.
At the center sits Pesewa AI, the intelligent connective tissue that learns from every interaction and data point, orchestrating a seamless flow of support. Around it, services orbit:
Marketplace
To be seen and connect with buyers
Operations Tools
For efficient day-to-day management
Capital Pathways
Access to crucial financing
Skills Development
Essential training for growth
Trust Networks
Cross-border connections and collaboration
This is not one program but many circuits: each module solving a specific problem, all wired into a safety net that can also act as a trampoline.
Why Integration Works
Anticipates needs before they become crises
Connects solutions that reinforce each other
Adapts to local context while maintaining coherence
Empowers agency rather than creating dependency
Scales through intelligence, not rigid templates
Systems
Why Integration Matters: The Fragmentation Problem
Comparative analysis: Traditional support vs. ecosystem approach
Most SME support programs fail not because they lack good intentions, but because they address symptoms in isolation. A 2024 review of African business incubators found that while incubators offer valuable services, there's a critical misalignment: SMEs prioritize access to finance and markets, while incubators primarily offer office space and training (Business Perspectives, 2024).
Traditional Fragmented Support
Training programs disconnected from capital access
Mentorship without market linkages
Technology tools that don't integrate with financial systems
One-size-fits-all approaches ignoring local context
Result: 50%+ failure rates persist despite interventions
Pesewa ONE's Integrated Approach
CoINS connects operations, finance, and customer data in one platform
Opportunities Matrix links businesses directly to funding and contracts
Pesewa House provides capital informed by real operational data
Franchise model adapts to local regulatory and cultural contexts
Hypothesis: Integration addresses root causes, not just symptoms
The Evidence Gap: While traditional incubator effectiveness remains questionable—with South Africa's SME failure rate unchanged despite proliferating incubators—integrated ecosystem models lack rigorous impact evaluation. Pesewa ONE's 2027 targets will provide crucial data on whether integration delivers measurably better outcomes.
The logic is straightforward: if an entrepreneur needs capital, market access, AND operational efficiency to succeed, providing only one or two creates a bottleneck elsewhere. Integration isn't about offering more services—it's about ensuring services reinforce rather than contradict each other. Whether this theory holds in practice remains Pesewa ONE's central test.
An Economy in a Box
The concept of "An Economy in a Box" represents Pesewa ONE's ambitious vision: a self-contained, comprehensive ecosystem designed to empower entrepreneurs from inception to global market penetration. Instead of offering fragmented solutions, this integrated approach provides a holistic suite of tools, resources, and support systems that work seamlessly together, addressing every critical aspect of a small business's journey. This interconnected framework ensures that entrepreneurs are not just supported, but truly enabled to thrive in a complex global landscape.
Global SME Business Center
A dynamic digital marketplace and business hub that showcases verified products and services from SMEs across the globe, connecting local entrepreneurs to international buyers and partners.
Continuous Innovation System (CoINS)
An integrated workflow framework managing the entire operational life cycle within a single AI platform—product development, customer engagement, financial tracking, and performance monitoring.
Opportunities Matrix
An intelligent matching engine that scans global databases of tenders, grants, and investments to deliver tailored leads, transforming scattered data into actionable opportunities.
Pesewa House
The capital arm providing micro-loans, revenue-based financing, equity investments, and structured debt instruments, paired with financial education and strategic support.
Enterprise School & Club
Offers specialized training, skill-building workshops, and mentorship programs, fostering a community of continuous learning and peer support among entrepreneurs.
Anchor Franchise Network
Connects entrepreneurs with proven business models and established brands, facilitating rapid scaling and market entry through a supportive franchise framework.
Pesewa SQ
A quality assurance and standards framework that builds trust and credibility by verifying the quality of products, services, and business practices within the ecosystem.
Pesewa QR
A secure digital identification and payment system that streamlines transactions, enhances traceability, and reduces fraud, ensuring seamless operations across the network.
Together, these interconnected components form a powerful, self-sustaining ecosystem orchestrated by Pesewa AI. This holistic architecture ensures that entrepreneurs receive not just isolated services, but a continuous flow of integrated support—from market access and finance to skill development and quality assurance. This approach not only mitigates individual business challenges but amplifies collective growth, proving that when all parts of the economy work in concert, the potential for empowerment is limitless.
The Innovation Loop and Opportunity Engine
CoINS: The Innovation Loop
CoINS, the Continuous Innovation System, is Pesewa ONE's answer to a simple question: how do you help a small business keep improving when the owner already does three jobs? Instead of a stack of disconnected tools, CoINS offers one console where tasks, customers, finances, and experiments live together.
An entrepreneur can log orders, track cash flow, send basic campaigns, and test new offers without hiring a team of specialists. AI nudges suggest which customers are drifting, which products carry better margins, and which routines waste more time than they save.
Importantly, CoINS is built for incremental change. There are no grand reinventions, just small loops of "try–observe–adjust" that compound over months. It treats innovation not as a rare event but as a habit that even the busiest shopkeeper can practice.
Opportunities Matrix: From Noise to Leads
For many small businesses, opportunity is not scarce; it is invisible. Tenders are buried in jargon; grants close before anyone hears of them; partnerships rely on who happens to know whom. The Opportunities Matrix turns that chaos into a searchable, personalized feed.
By matching each business profile with a dynamic database of grants, contracts, and partnership calls, the system surfaces a shortlist of leads that actually fit—by sector, size, geography, and stage. It then links out to support: templates for applications, training on pitching, and, when needed, introductions through franchise hubs or anchor partners.
Instead of spending late nights trawling the internet, entrepreneurs receive a quiet signal: "This one is worth your time." The matrix does not guarantee a win, but it ensures that more small players at least make it to the starting line.
Forging Futures: Bridging the Divide
As we conclude our exploration of the vast opportunity gap and the innovative efforts to bridge it, it becomes clear that the path forward is complex, multifaceted, and deeply human. The journey with Pesewa ONE illustrates a powerful narrative: that grand ambition, when tempered by reality and driven by an unwavering commitment to people, can unlock unprecedented potential. This document has delved into the strategic intersections of technology, finance, and human capital, revealing how a holistic approach is essential for sustainable progress.
The lessons gleaned from the field—from the resilience of Ama, the tailor, to the adaptive strategies in scaling an economy in a box—underscore a fundamental truth: innovation thrives not in isolation, but through thoughtful integration. It's about designing systems that elevate individuals, adapting technology to cultural nuances, and building financial frameworks that empower rather than restrict. The future is being forged at these critical junctures, demanding both visionary leadership and meticulous execution.
Human-Centric Innovation
Technology must serve people, enhancing their capabilities and respecting their unique contexts and cultures, rather than displacing them.
Adaptive Strategy
Growth requires constant reality checks, learning from challenges, and tailoring solutions to diverse local regulatory and social environments.
Sustainable Impact
The goal is not just to scale, but to ensure that expansion leads to equitable empowerment and long-term positive change for all stakeholders.
The ambition to close the gap is immense, yet the blueprint for success lies in these interconnected principles. By championing a future where every individual can access tools and opportunities, we move closer to a truly inclusive global economy. The ongoing work highlighted within these pages is a testament to the power of vision meeting ground-level reality, continuously refining the path towards a more prosperous and connected world.