A Commendable Initiative

Editorial (Daily Searchlight of Monday, 1st August 2022)

Three students of the University for Development Studies (UDS) have emerged tops in the third edition of the Vice-Chancellor’s Business Innovation Award qualifying them to receive GH¢15,000.00 funding support each for their businesses. 

     Ms  Fuseini Hannatu Bawre, a final year Early Childhood Care and Education student, Ms Alhassan Nimatu Amban, a level 300 Early Grade Education student and  Ms Naa Ayeley Tagoe, a final year midwifery student, won the first, second and third positions in that order. 

      They were declared winners out of 12 individuals and groups, who pitched their business ideas on food, nutrition, poultry production and aquaculture. 

     The awardees would undergo business incubation sessions and support from the Business Innovation and Incubation Centre (BIIC) of UDS to nurture their entrepreneurial capacities and sustain their businesses. 

      This year’s Vice-Chancellor’s Business Innovation Award formed part of the activities lined up to commemorate the University’s 30th anniversary celebration as well as the BIIC’s effort to inculcate the sense of entrepreneurship in UDS students and the youth. 

      It is an initiative under the BIIC of the University’s Business Directorate (UDS-BD) aimed at developing the business acumen of students to enable them to take advantage of available opportunities. 

The Daily Searchlight would like to send high commendations to the University for Development Studies (UDS) for this initiative.

It goes without saying that the structure of education in Ghana is targeted as individuals who intend to work at salaried tenure. Many people do not ever dream of going out to create businesses to keep themselves employed, and even better, to employ other people. 

Worse, our educational system works on the principle that you must be a salaried worker to be successful.

However, in this day and age where there are virtually no job openings, the only way to find employment is to strike out on one’s own.

That is why we believe that the initiative by UDS is highly commendable and worthy of emulation by other universities.

We hope that the three privileged students who won would realize that this is indeed a great opportunity, and make good use of it. If they succeed, others will follow. If they fail, they would only discourage those who follow them.

(This article was first published in the column EDITORIAL of the Daily Searchlight on Monday, 1st August 2022. The Daily Searchlight appears on the newsstands of Ghana every working day and PDF versions are available for sale online twenty-four hours a day all day throughout the world on www.ghananewsstand.com).