Report by Ben LARYEA
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo – Addo has personally supported the 4th Edition of the Presidential Pitch with a whopping sum of GH¢ 50,000.00 as against his previous amount of GH¢ 25,000.00 to the 3rd Edition of the programme.
The initiative seeks to provide financial support to young entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 to 40years and forms part of a business competition in relations to the president‘s vision to assist young entrepreneurs to nature their businesses ideas and improve livelihoods.
Applicants in this regard were to pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges out of which 25 were selected for funding as they are challenged to exhibit feasibility, innovativeness, scalability and impact in their business concepts.
Speaking at the Presidential Pitch season 4 in Accra, the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo – Addo said entrepreneurship is the drive to address the unemployment challenges across the country, adding, government will roll out the needed initiatives and programmes to scale up enterprises for economic growth and development.
The programme under the theme, “Building A Sustainable Entrepreneurial Nation: The Role of Our Future Uncorns” was organized by National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) have 10 applicants namely Jennifer Kwakwa Sarpong of Bidigreen Ghana Limited, Ike Agyei Mensah – Deafcantalk, Bismark Etornam Mensah – Fetuli Foods, Aphraim Bukari Adombila – Haliah Organic Africa, and Kwabena Tuffour – Prosect Feed Limited.
The others are Adriana Appiagyei – Reocoplast, Kwaku Ansu Aforo – Recco Solutions, Daniel Amaza Philips – Scribble Works, Georgina Odom – Useful Waste Limited and Caleb Edem Mantey of Ralu Interactives.
The President said, government will prioritize the entrepreneurship space and will support young Ghanaians with startups to boost their businesses to enable them attain a promising future as well as be self-independence in their business growth and development.
“Government is fervently preparing a conducive environment for entrepreneurs to strive for excellence to enable young people to come up with creative ideas that can be developed into businesses, he said.
He, however, commanded NEIP and stakeholders particularly Minister of Tourism and Creative Arts, Mohammed Awal for working assiduous and his unflinching support in unlocking the business potential in the youth. towards wealth creation.
The Deputy Minister for Finance, Dr. John Kumah said, the programme is an initiative rolled out by government to support young people in their quest for job seeking and thus urged them to take advantage of the programme.
“Create jobs for yourself by setting up businesses since young Ghanaians entrepreneurs are making giant strides in the entrepreneurship space and open branches across the country just like Pizza Man, Chicken Man”, he said.
He therefore called on government to institute an Entrepreneurship Celebration Day as part of the effort to create awareness of the enormous job potentials for the youth. For his part, the Chief Executive Officer, (CEO) of NEIP, Mr. Kofi Ofosu Nkansah said, Ghanaians have made huge impact in businesses as others have gain access to the global trade.
According to him, the initiative have found its footing in the country’s prisons and as a result inmates have had the opportunity to acquire skills to become self-independent as they are reintegrated with society and thus thanked the President for the initiative leading to the unlocking the business potentials in young people.
