Jessie wins big at MTN Lift Your Game finals

Trade Minister Ms Hannah Tetteh congratulates Jessie for a great work. Looking on is AGI President, Nana Owusu Afari.

Jessie Abanwaa Bartels, a 28-year old mushroom and grasscutter farmer from Dodowa was adjudged the winner of the MTN Lift Your Game TV reality show.

Jessie, who manages Renom Food Farms, impressed a judging panel made up of some of Ghana finest entrepreneurs with her knowledge, eloquence and presentation at the finals of the programme held on February 5, 2010.

She was the ultimate winner of an MTN VIP package to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

MTN Lift Your Game was a unique entrepreneurship development competition organized in collaboration with the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF), with partial funding from the BDS Fund of the MSME Project under the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The title sponsor was MTN, Ghana's number-one telecommunications network, with KAS Valley Properties also a supporting sponsor.

The event attracted hundreds of personalities, including business luminaries, diplomats, students, and supporters of the contestants.

Among patrons at the final were Hon. Ms. Hannah Tetteh, the Minister of Trade and Industry; Nana Owusu Afari, the Association of Ghana Industries president; the Director-General of the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF); Hajia Hajara Ali, member of the Council of State and many accomplished entrepreneurs who have featured as guests on the M'asem TV programme.



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An offcial of MTN congratulating Jessie. With them is Nana Owusu Afari, AGI President.







Interestingly, the five finalists were all ladies. This impressed the Trade Minister, who commended the organizers, Awesome Ventures Limited, for their vision.

Over a six-month period, the MTN Lift Your Game project provided Business Growth training to over 300 small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); intensive training to 30 shortlisted entrepreneurs; and personalised training and mentoring to 15 finalists, who were also challenged by MTN to develop innovative community improvement projects. The community development prize, which was also sponsored by MTN, went to Patrick Kumor, who tackled the problem of waste management at Mallam in Accra.