Eyram Tawiah Akofa Wins Young Creative Entrepreneur award

The Chief Executive Officer of Leti Games, a game industry in Ghana, Mr Eyram Tawia Akofa, has been adjudged the winner of this year’s Young Creative Entrepreneur (YCE) Award.

The 28-year old graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), will join winners from 17 countries to participate in a shared study tour of the media sector of the UK.

Mr Akofa will also have the chance to attend the 2012 London Film Festival, which starts from October 10 to 25, this year.

Organised by the British Council, the YCE award allows the winners to gain unique access to and insight into the UK media industry and provides the opportunity to make a wide range of business contacts that will act as a springboard for future business internationally.

Established in 2006, the award identifies and connects a global network of emerging innovative entrepreneurs in the creative and cultural sector.

It also champions those who find new ways to take creative work to audiences and communities.

The focus of the programme is to catalyse future collaboration and business between the UK and participating countries around the world.

At the event to announce the winner in Accra last Thursday, the Head of Programmes at the British Council, Ms Bridget Konadu-Gyamfi, explained that the YCE award sought to find young entrepreneurs with passion to develop the creative sector and the cultural market.

‘’Over the past five years, we have selected three winners (two from fashion and one from the media) to participate in a shared programme in the UK. We hope to continue to offer young entrepreneurs in these areas such opportunities,’’ she said.

Giving details of the criteria for selection, Ms Konadu-Gyamfi said 50 people applied for this year’s YCE award.

“Applicants were shortlisted, screened and six finalists selected. They went through interview sessions and the eventual winner was selected,’’ she said.

According to her, Mr Akofa was selected based on his creativity in designing and implementing games in most programming languages.

“Due to the limitation in finding local expertise in the scale of game development, his company tries to contribute to academia by improving the Computer Science curriculum using game development,’’ she said.

Mr Akofa observed that the idea behind the creation of Leti games was to bridge the gap between Science and Arts.

“This will create a whole new industry in Africa that will create job opportunities for the creative media industry,’’ he said.