Ten Youth Start-Up Businesses Receive Over Gh?50, 000 Each From Government

By Rex Mainoo Yeboah

The Presidential Pitch--a business idea competition module--aimed at expanding the entrepreneurial climate to enable Ghanaian youth come up with creative ideas that would be developed into global giants, has been launched in Accra.

The maiden edition of the Presidential Pitch forms part of government's efforts to implement concerted policies and programmes that will create and expand the frontiers of ecosystem entrepreneurship skills among Ghanaian youth.

Under the auspices of the Ministry of Business Development, the implementing agency for the competition, 2,000 Business proposals were received across the country while 20 proposals selected were benchmarked, based on four thematic areas - feasibility, innovative, scalability and impact fullness.

The selected 20 youth entrepreneurs, aged between 18 and 35 years, will be given mentors and attached to various businesses, and the rest will remain at the Ministry's incubator hub for further developing them into viable businesses opportunities.

Out of the ten young entrepreneurs, who presented their ideas, 19 year old Vanessa Aisha Liman, from Sissala in the Upper West Region, was adjudged the first, taking away a cash price of GH? 50, 000. In addition, she received a personal donation of Gh?25,000 from Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana.

Abdul-Salam Mohammed, took away Gh?45,000 as the first runner-up while Ahmed Tijani bagged home GH?40,000 as the Second runner-up, with the other 7 competitors taking away a cash price of Gh?30,000 each.

President Akufo-Addo, who launched the Presidential Pitch on Monday, expressed optimism and expectation that the 10 beneficiary companies would help "create jobs and, at least, employ three people each.

President Akufo-Addo bemoaned the dreary inability of the country to incubate business ideas and developed them into global giants, especially where there were many enterprising, creative and innovative youth, seeking opportunity in the country.

The President cited the adage "a journey of five thousand miles begins with the first step, "adding Government was taking that first step.

He disclosed that aside the periodic updates from the Ministry's monitoring and evaluation systems, he would take personal interest in the way the beneficiary companies ran, as the Ministry helped nurture them into prominence.

He said in addition to the Presidential Pitch to augment and entrench young entrepreneurs skills, government, last year, launched the National Entrepreneurship and Innovations Plan (NEIP), with an initial start-up capital of US $10 million, to support young entrepreneurs start-ups.

The President said through the NEIP, five hundred (500) young men and women across the country would receive funding to help expand their businesses and that this would be the first time, in recent times, that a deliberate, systematic, integrated national policy had been instituted to support early stage start-ups and small businesses.

President Akufo-Addo reiterated government's commitment to creating in Ghana, the most business-friendly environment in Africa, where businesses would flourish and create jobs.

"That is why government has put in place measures intended to reduce the cost of doing business and improve the business environment. Our actions have resulted in the growing stability of the macro-economy, reduction in inflation, reduction in utility tariffs, and an abolition of nuisance taxes whose aim is to shift the focus of the economy from taxation to production," the President added.

All these measures, the president noted, were been undertaken to stimulate enterprise activity and growth in the country, saying "in you, the contestants I have met today, the future of the Ghanaian private sector is extremely promising", and applauded each of the contestants warmly on their products and presentations.

President Akufo-Addo expressed hope in Ghana's manifest destiny and in the capacity of the Ghanaian to construct a new, prosperous Ghanaian civilization that will reflect the progressive values and culture, which had defined the Ghanaian people through the ages.

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