ATU to unveil funding platform to support student entrepreneurs
The Accra Technical University will soon unveil a platform that will enable their students with entrepreneurial skills to pitch their business ideas for funding support from the university, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Samuel Nii Odai, has announced.
According to him, the platform would help unearth students with the potential as entrepreneurs, and offer them the needed funding support and technical assistance to establish their own businesses before completing their course of study.
“Personally, I will want to say that this is just the beginning, as a university we have strong plans to build on the Social Enterprise Training (SET). It was part of our plans last year, and we are going to continue and really establish it strongly this year. We will invite students to make a pitch and then judges will listen to them and then those with brilliant business ideas can be supported,” he said.
Prof. Odai, who was speaking to the Ghanaian Times on the sidelines of the ATU-Innovation for African Universities (IAU) closing dissemination Programme in Accra at the weekend, said there was the need to add value to students and move them away from the theories.
This, he said, was the only way they would be able to create businesses for themselves and their peers as well as help deal with the unemployment situation in the country.
Touching on the IAU programme, he explained that the programme aimed to foster the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship within universities, and facilitate the development of skills required to build industries, companies, products and services.
On his part, the Director of Programmes and Partnerships at the British Council, Solomon Domayen Antumwini, appealed to students at the tertiary level to be more innovative by developing some business skills before exiting out of school.
He explained that the British Council under the Innovation for African Universities Programme would provide the needed support to entrepreneurs with skills to bridge the unemployment gap in the country.
“We are doing this project to support these young ones to understand the importance of being innovative as an entrepreneur. This is key to their growth and expansion,” he said.
The project is designed to support the development of Africa – UK University Partnerships that build institutional capacity for engagement in entrepreneurship and innovative ecosystems in selected African countries.
The overall aim of the programme objective is to strengthen the capacity of universities and increase their capabilities to participate and provide meaningful contributions as key players within the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
