The second edition of the McDan Entrepreneurship Challenge organised by the McDan Foundation was yesterday launched in Accra with 80 potential entrepreneurs taking part in it.
The thirteen-week challenge has prize money of $100,000 (GH₵532,000) and seeks to equip young people with entrepreneurial ambitions with the skills and the financial muscles to enable them become great entrepreneurs.
As part of the challenge, participants are required to have some level of skills, a business plan and some business know-how.
Speaking at the launch, the Chairman of the McDan Group of Companies, Dr Daniel McKorley, said the number applicants and the quality of their business plans showed that the participants were poised for this year’s challenge.
“When you look at the applicants and their various businesses, I see more innovation this time I see more of different dynamics in terms of the first season. And I can also see that the second season the contestants are very serious and determined,” he added.
Mr McKorley noted that the road to becoming successful is won through discipline and good outlook, adding that, “every successful man had discipline and also put up the right attitude.
“What makes you successful is not really about what you know, it’s not about what you have learnt but about your attitude,” he emphasised.
According to the chairman, the high rate of youth unemployment could not be eradicated by the government alone, but would require the support of the private sector.
He indicated that the Entrepreneurship Challenge provided the opportunity for young people to develop their own businesses and this would help curb the menace of youth unemployment.
“It is expected that the problem of youth unemployment will intensify if job creation is limited. Government and private sector have made some major investments in this regard and more is needed to be done,” he noted.
In addition, he said the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has had a good impact by creating opportunity for entrepreneurs to modernise their businesses.
“COVID-19 has really brought the best out of entrepreneurs, I mean we all have learnt to remodel our businesses. Imagine you are an entrepreneur and you are on lockdown with no revenue coming in, no movement, it’s an opportunity for an entrepreneur to think, to be innovative and to grow one’s business,” he mentioned.
On his part, the winner of the maiden edition and the founder of Alkoshea, Mr Alhassan Hamza Akoligoh, advised this year’s contestants not to focus on the cash prize, but be determined to grow their business and impact on the lives of the youth.
BY JUDITH AZAMACHIE & BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY
