KNUST prepares students to establish own businesses
The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has instituted a business incubator programme to prepare graduates to establish their own private businesses.
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The programme is intended to help reduce the country’s growing unemployment rate.
Programme
The programme involves the selection of viable companies and entrepreneurs to mentor qualified students, provide them with the necessary equipment and capital after which they would be guided to go commercial. Currently, 64 students who have been grouped into 25 business companies are being groomed to hit the market.
The Centre for Business Development of the KNUST is collaborating with the College of Arts and Social Sciences to run the annual KNUST-HFC Entrepreneur Clinic for final year students of the university.
The Head of the centre, Mr Samuel Yaw Akomea, told the Daily Graphic that the project was intended to encourage graduates to be self-reliant than to make them dependent on government for jobs.
The programme, which is being run in phases, is compulsory for all final-year students including medical students who are to be mentored by experts on their chosen field of study and supported financially to be on their own.
Innovation
Already, a 22-year-old final year IT student, whose name had not been disclosed, has developed a computer software that facilitates the registration of prospective students online for hostel accommodation by capturing their details biometrically to prevent impersonation and fraud.
The software, which is GH¢90,000, is currently being used by a number of tertiary institutions to solve student accommodation problems at their respective institutions.
Among the resource persons who took the students through practical business establishments, challenges and rewards were Dr Yaw Adu-Gyamfi of Dan Adams Pharmaceuticals who spoke on “how to start a business and sustain it” and a popular TV host, Akwesi Sarfo Kantanka who also took them through ‘Change Management.’