KNUST VC supports winners of 2019 Presidential Pitch Season II competition.
The Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has on behalf of the university donated One Hundred Thousand Ghana cedis (GH ¢100,000.00) to the winners of the 2019 Presidential Pitch Season II Competition.
Professor Obiri Danso, also mentioned that the university would provide an office space, production site, machinery and other required assistance needed for the production of the award winning product, “FLOYABANA PAD”.
Professor Kwasi Obiri Danso, said these when the winners of the 2019 Presidential Pitch Season II, Miss Emily Otoo-Quayson and Miss Matilda Asantewaa Sampong, accompanied by the Vice Dean of Students’ Affairs and officials of the ‘Mastercard Foundation Scholars’ Programme at KNUST paid a courtesy call on him.
The VC congratulated the winners for their success, ‘As a university, we are ready to give all the support needed to champion this course” and expressed the hope that the winners would develop the product into a competitive brand for both the Ghanaian market and international market.
Prof Danso also urged other students in KNUST to emulate the hard work, creativity and ingenuity of the award winners so that the university would continue to be a shining example in Ghana and Africa as a whole.
Ms Emily Otoo-Quayson on behalf of her group expressed gratitude to the management of the university for the wonderful gesture, explaining that the pressing needs of upcoming entrepreneurs in Ghana and Africa was lack of startup capital.
She therefore, promised to put the university’s support to good use and also appealed to other corporate organisation and individuals who believe in their dream to support them to develop their product into a global brand.
Ms Otoo-Quayson said that if they succeeded, they would be able to provide jobs for a lot of the unemployed youth in Ghana who were willing and ready to work.
The Presidential Pitch is a project designed and organised by the Ministry of Business Development to offer young Ghanaian entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35 the opportunity to market their business ideas and get financial assistance to implement those ideas.
The project is in line with the President’s vision to assist young entrepreneurs to nurture their business ideas and improve livelihoods to drive economic growth.
In all, two hundred competitors from Ghana participated in the 2019 competition, however the two came up victorious. Miss Emily Otoo an alumnus of KNUST from the Department of Civil Engineering and Miss Matilda Asantewaa Sampong a third year Business Administration student who represented KNUST as a team, were awarded GH¢60,000 as investment package and GH¢40,000 personal donation from the President of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo.
They beat nine other teams who presented their ideas and answered questions before His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo, Ministers of State and Members of the Diplomatic Corps. The ideas presented exhibited four characteristics: feasibility, innovation, scalability and impact.
