Mr Franklin Sowa, Director Marketing, Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), speaking at the launch of the business sense challenge in Accra

Battle lines drawn for 2nd Tertiary Business Sense Challenge

Emmanuel Bruce Business News Feb - 06 - 2020 , 09:23

The battle lines have now been drawn to test the business sense of tertiary business schools throughout the country.

The Graphic Business Newspaper, with support from the Ministry of Business Development, has launched the second edition of the Tertiary Business Sense Challenge (TBSC) which is aimed at bridging the gap between academia and industry.

The competition, which is fast growing to become one of the most important competitions to test the minds of students at the tertiary level, will be held from Monday, February 24, 2020, to Thursday, March 5, 2020, at the TV3 Executive Theatre at Kanda, on the theme: “Developing Business Minds”.

It has attracted 19 schools drawn from both public and private tertiary institutions in the country that will lock horns in their quest to unseat the champion of the maiden edition, University of Cape Coast (UCC).

They include the UCC which is poised to retain its title, University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Accra Technical University (ATU), Radford University, AIT and All Nations University.

Others are the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), Central University, Kumasi Technical University, Ghana Technology University College and Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

The rest are Bluecrest University and the University for Development Studies (UDS), Wisconsin International University College (WIUC), African University College of Communications (AUCC), Methodist University and Ho Technical University.

The competition comes at a time when the government, in collaboration with the business community, is looking forward to building the capacities of the youth to imbibe in them the spirit of entrepreneurship.

It is also at a time when almost all tertiary schools in the country have added a specialised business faculty or school in their quest to deepen the teaching and learning of entrepreneurship.

Balloting

In what has been billed to be another exciting competition, the first round of the contest will see the University of Ghana Business School battling it out with All Nations University, with the KNUST Business School also facing Central University.

Accra Institute of Technology (AIT) will also face off with the Accra Technical University, with Methodist University also battling it out with the University of Development Studies (UDS).

Ho Technical University will also compete with the Ghana Technical University College (GTUC), with AUCC also facing the University of Education Winneba.

Bluecrest University were drawn with Kumasi Technical University, with UPSA also to slug it out with Winsconsin.

The University of Cape Coast, which won the first edition, were given a walk over and would, therefore, not participate in the first round of the competition

Some participating schools balloting before the commencement of the Tertiary Business Sense Challenge 2

Enabling environment

Speaking at the launch, the Minister of Business Development, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, said the government was committed to providing an enabling environment to enable the youth to succeed in entrepreneurship.

He said statistics indicated that 52 per cent of all new businesses were owned by young people, showing that when given the right support and the right environment, more youth could get into entrepreneurship and succeed.

“In line with government’s policy to drive entrepreneurship, we have in the last three years provided GH¢150 million to support young businesses.

We cannot develop the country without young people,” he said at the launch of the second edition of the Graphic Business Tertiary Business Sense Challenge (TBSC) in Accra on February 4.

Successful careers

The Director of Marketing of Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Franklin Sowa, said the company introduced the competition as part of efforts to remain relevant and contribute its quota to churn out students who would build successful careers in the future.

He said aside feeding its audience with authentic news, the company was positioning its brands to be the key source of information for the various segmented markets it served.

The Graphic Business, he said, had been positioned to set the business agenda and it was doing so through initiatives such as the TBSC which brought students together to test their knowledge on the business environment.