Proposals From KNUST Graduate Students Receive Boost Of 50k From NEIP

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology chapter of the Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG) has attracted a fifty thousand cedi fund from government for its annual entrepreneurship program which it launched last year 2016.

The competitive platform collates business proposals from students offering various post Graduate Masters and Doctoral programs for vetting and funding.

The funding is expected to be drawn from President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo Addo’s flagship National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP).

The details of the venture were announced at the launching of the 2017 GRASAG Entrepreneurship Program which is being organized under the theme “transforming the continent through entrepreneurship.”

The event witnessed various speakers share their entrepreneurial experiences and how students could pitch commercially viable ideas to set up their own businesses.

The speakers included CEO of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan - Lawyer john kumah; Medical superintendent of the Ejisu Government Hospital and CEO of I-commerce events - Dr Akwasi Baffour Gyimah; CEO of Agromindset - David Asiamah and one of Ghana’s finest female entrepreneurs in Photography Vera Obeng.

The panel sessions cut across risk taking, developing business ideas, managing failures, how to raise capital to start businesses and corporate communication.

Speaking to Ultimate News on the sidelines of the program, the Chief Executive Officer of the NEIP, Lawyer John Kuma pledged the support of the Nana Akufo Addo Administration to support young graduates establish their own ventures to begin employing other unemployed Ghanaians.

“It is impressive that we get students thinking entrepreneurial and government has a number of policies in place not just to provide funding like the 10 billion given to support young entrepreneurs; but we are also looking at business advisory services and giving tax breaks to young businesses up to five years,” Lawyer Kuma pointed out.

President of the CAGL group of companies - Isaac Amoako Mensa who left the Navy at the age of 28 to begin his business empire; advised that students see education as an avenue to expand their capabilities to launch out on their own and not an avenue to train themselves for formal employment.

He admonished, “I think there should be a paradigm shift in the mentality that we attend school to get jobs in the banks and others. It should be that we attend schools to get the basic knowledge then look for practical knowledge to set up our own businesses.”

The president of the KNUST chapter of the Graduates Student Association Abraham Poku Adu was impressed with the number of business proposals forwarded by the graduate students. He outlines the processes the competition will undergo to declare winners who will receive between five and ten thousand to kick off their businesses.

“We have received more than a hundred and twenty proposals already. We will shortlist about fifty to eighty to go through training and after the training we are ready to fund twenty of them with a minimum of five thousand cedis. The ultimate person will go home with ten thousand Ghana cedis,” he elucidated.

Some of the participants who spoke to Ultimate News’ Ivan Heathcote – Fumador shared highlights of lessons they had gleaned from the entrepreneurial conference.

A Biotechnology masters student Francis Minta Dadzie told Ultimate News, “What I actually learnt was that we should be focussed on what we want to do and then the interest in making an impact in the world should be maintained.”

A second year Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Masters Student, John Doku Marfo Jnr. was impressed he now knows how to communicate his business ideas to solicit support without having others steal his ideas.

Should such initiatives prove successful, the KNUST Graduate Community stands to begin churning out more graduates with budding businesses capable of lessening the unemployment burden on government.