The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), Mr Kofi Owusu Nkansah, says the programme is committed to positioning the country as an entrepreneurial nation.
Speaking to the Ghanaian Times on the sidelines of the fourth season of the Presidential Pitch held on Friday, he said the NEIP was creating a future where young Ghanaian entrepreneurs would lead the charge as far as economic development was concerned.
This year’s event was on the theme; ‘Building a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Nation: the role of our Future Unicorns.’
Delivering the welcome address, Mr Nkansah said “we are envisioning a future, preferably within a decade, where successful businesses from this Presidential Pitch could be worth over a billion Ghana cedis, if we are to localise the term Unicorn.”
The event, he said was highlighting a future of possibilities with the concept of ‘Unicorn Entrepreneurs.”
“We are clear in our mission to support the building of Ghana as an entrepreneurial nation to take advantage of national, regional and global opportunities,” he stated.
He added that, the programme was a unique way of creating Ghana’s own Jack Mas, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and multiplying the likes of Osei Kwame Despites and Jospongs, to name but a few.
“Already, we are seeing emergent stars from this Presidential Pitch events shining brightly. We are proud to point out that Pizzaman-Chickenman is our graduate from the 2018 Pitch Event. Today, the owner, the 27-year-old Christian Boakye Yiadom, runs the largest chain of restaurants in Ghana, with about 33 outlets and is competing well with global brands such as KFC, Burger King and others,” he stressed.
In view of that, he said aside the Presidential Pitch, they had been resolute in implementing structural programmes including the Presidential Business Support Programme, now the Presidential Startups Support Programme, the Presidential Empowerment for Women Entrepreneurs with Disability (PEWED), the Presidential Empowerment for Men Entrepreneurs with disability (PEMED), the Greenhouse Farming Programme and the Student Entrepreneurship Initiative.
“We have trained and supported about 10,000 young persons with business readiness tools nationwide in partnership with the Youth Employment Agency. We are gradually onboarding these beneficiaries on the Youstart Programme to provide them with grants and starter packs,” he stated.
“We have trained 24,000 youth in our Youth in Innovative Agriculture Support Project under the GhanaCARES ‘Obaatanpa’ Programme. We have disbursed grants to 1000 beneficiaries so far. In addition, we are onboarding young farmers under the Economic Enclave Project of the Ghana CARES Programme,” he added.
“We have supported about 30 entrepreneurship and innovation hubs across the sixteen regions of the country from Government’s US$7 million capacity building programme under the NEIP Hubs Acceleration Grant Programme of the Ghana Economic Transformation Project (GETP); Mr President, the Tech Hubs received up to US$180,000 each to support the acceleration of 20 startups and upgrade of their hubs,” he stressed.
This year’s Presidential Pitch, he said attracted applications from various sectors including Fintech and Technology, Manufacturing and Processing, Food and Beverage, Agribusiness and Tourism and Creatives Sector.
In all, GH¢2.5 million was invested into the provision of grants for the top 30 entrepreneurs while the President personally donated GH¢50,000 to the ultimate winner Relu Interactive.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL & MICHAEL D. ABAYATEYE
