Nana Twum- Danso is a medical doctor and through her emergency health transportation startup, Maza, she is saving the lives of expectant mothers and their unborn babies in rural Ghana.

Through a network of multipurpose motorized tricycles and drivers at the community level that is powered by mobile technology, MAZA enables rural families to access health care in a timely manner during an urgent health crisis so that their chances of survival are improved.

Although Nana initially did her residency training in emergency medicine, she was more interested in community and household health so she switched to public health and completed her training.

Nana worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, and then moved back to Ghana to start Maza. She admits that it has been hard to get funding but she does not regret giving up about 70% of her personal savings to make the idea work. The success stories always keep her motivated. 

Her candid advice to entrepreneurs is this, “When you have an idea that you believe will make a difference and isn’t been done anywhere else, you should be willing to give it time, attention, money whatever it takes to test the idea. That’s a long term thing. It’s not something you do a half way.”

You have to really believe in your idea. You need to give it your time to succeed. Of course it could fail, but it could also succeed. But at least give it a chance.