GTL and Grassroots Hub organise 2nd Sunyani start-up summit

It is a one-day summit dubbed "SUNYANI START-UP SUMMIT 2021" on the theme: "Digital Media for Business and Jobs Creation in This Era" to inspire innovation, creativity, and ideation, thus, taking simple ideas and turning them into big business ventures.

The event was organized by the GrassRoots Hub in partnership with Ghana Tech Lab as part of the digital media training, supported by the Ministry of Communication, Master Card Foundations and World Bank under the Pathways to Sustainable Employment (PaSE) Programme.

The summit brought together more than 100 participants including females made up of innovative entrepreneurs, investors, students, unemployed and private sector actors to share ideas and explore, promote startup culture and increase access to funding for young businesses within the Sunyani ecosystem.

Other participants included representatives from Data bank, Prudential Life Insurance, the National Youth Authority (NYA), the Sunyani Youth Development Association (SYDA), students and lecturers of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) and some private business in Sunyani.

Mr. Emmanuel Marfo, Co-Founder and President of GrassRoots Hub, in his remarks said the summit was to creat an excellent and favorable environment opportunities for individual business beginners to network and identify mentors in their field of business.

This, he said would strengthen the capacities of participants as graduates with potentials to create jobs for themselves and employ others to cut off the rate of over dependent on government for employment.

The summit was also an internship and incubation period for participants of the just ended six (6) weeks digital media training held for youth in Sunyani and the Bono Region in general.

They were trained in Videography, Digital Marketing, Sound Design, Graphic and Motion Design, Creative Writing and Blogging and Photography.

The training equipped them in the use of social media impact and innovation to spotlight unique roles in advancing the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

At the summit, participants of the digital media training, in three groups ‘TELL US MEDIA, Izy Kach and PLAN ME’ pitched to audience their innovative ideas.

The emerged winners, TELL US MEDIA would go through incubation to represent Sunyani in the national pitching in Accra.

Later in an interview, Mr. Amissah Edmond, a Lecturer, Department of Entrepreneurship and Business Sciences at the University of Energy and Natural Resources and a panel judge encouraged Ghanaian Youth to take advantage of digitization and generate innovative ideas to create jobs.

He said one must have the confidence to start his/her own business, citing that “Toyota is a family business but now it’s all over the whole world which no member of that family would be going round looking for employment”.