GNVC Chairs Launch Of Youth Employment Summit

Accra, Ghana – Monday, 5 July, 2004 – Ghana New Ventures Competition (GNVC) recently chaired and supported the launch event for the 2004 Youth Employment Summit from 10 AM until 12:30 PM on Wednesday, 30 June, 2004 at the British Council Hall in Accra.

The launch event was held in Accra on behalf of the Federal Government of Mexico, the US-based YES Campaign, and the YES Ghana Country Network to announce the 2004 Youth Employment Summit (YES), to be held in Veracruz, Mexico, from October 4-7, 2004.

YES approached GNVC to act as chairman for the event due to GNVC's active role in promoting entrepreneurship as a means to improve youth employment and employability.

Speaking on behalf of GNVC, Andrew Kwesi Kafe (Director of Global Recruitment) shared, “For many years, GNVC has understood and appreciated its role in the private sector as a promoter of and champion for youth employment opportunities. … GNVC deliberately provides a variety of resources and tools to young entrepreneurs in service of their future employment and workforce experiences. Linking eager and talented youth with business mentors, skills training workshops, networking opportunities, and a free online Distance Learning Centre, GNVC recognises the powerful connection between entrepreneurship and employability. In fact, GNVC would assert that a background in entrepreneurship increases one's employability.”

GNVC is an international not-for-profit organisation incorporated in Ghana and the US. The organisation was founded by a group of Ghanaian students in the USA who were involved with the leadership of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) $50,000 Entrepreneurship Competition in Boston, MA. Since its inception, GNVC has aimed to lay the networking and educational infrastructure necessary for entrepreneurs to pursue their goals, learning the skills to start businesses that will benefit Ghana's people and economy.

GNVC meets these objectives by organising annual business plan competitions centered on training aspiring entrepreneurs to produce effective business plans, empowering them through mentors and role models in the Ghanaian business community, and enabling them to establish their own companies. GNVC also provides the most promising teams of entrepreneurs with start-up grants totaling thousands of dollars.

This year, GNVC awarded $10,000 in total start-up grant commitments to three winning companies: Supply Solutions, Greenfield Agro Ventures, and Rejuve Spa & Resort. In the previous two years of operations, GNVC catalysed the formation of three other new ventures in Ghana – Strategic Accounting Solutions (SAS), Afroduct, and Peco Training Centre – each of which received $1,000 in start-up grants. Therefore, the total number of new ventures funded by GNVC via three business plan competitions has become six.