UPSA alumni, UMB Bank launch incubation project
The University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) has unveiled its maiden business incubation project to whip up the entrepreneurial interest of students while in school.
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Spearheaded by the alumni association of the school, the maiden edition is designed to create the necessary synergy between the university and industry.
It is also designed to equip students with the requisite human resource capacity to be able to resolve many of the challenges facing the country as far as unemployment is concerned.
Opened to students in levels 100 to 400 as well as post-graduate candidates, the system would require students to develop business ideas that would help solve a challenge in society or create a new business.
The entire project which would run for this year is sponsored by the Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) and the UPSA Alumni Association.
Launch
Launching the incubation challenge system in Accra, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the UPSA, Prof. Oko Amartey Abednego, dared students to come up with good business ideas which could sell easily on the market.
While acknowledging the challenges many countries including Ghana faced, he noted that it was important for students to help solve the challenges of the world rather than resorting to complaints.
The Dean of International Affairs and Collaborations of the UPSA, Prof. Goski Alabi, also called on the students to develop good attitudes while on campus since that would play a major role in making them attractive on the job market.
Processes to go through
Explaining the processes students were supposed to go through, the Chairman of the UPSA Alumni Association, Dr John Kwaku Mensah Mawutor, said students could enter as individuals or form partnership and come up with business ideas that could be ‘sold on the market.’
The areas of interests he said included the development of softwares for small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) and commercial banks and business plans and softwares for the service and manufacturing industries in the country.
“This means that students are required to undertake a rigorous research to be able to come up with the needed business plan or software that would either assist a business or even create a new one,” he stated.
According to him, the association alone had made an amount of GH¢30,000 available to assist candidates as they went through the various stages of their activities before a final three were accepted.
He said all candidates are expected to submit their business proposals to the selection team on campus not later than September 30, 2016.
“The winner will walk away with a seed capital of GH¢5,000 to start his or her own business,” he added.
Plans to open to Ghanaian youth
For a start, Dr Mawutor said it was only opened to students of the university, adding that “we are making frantic efforts to open it to the youth in Ghana in the not too distant future.
“Our aim is to do our best to help solve the challenges of unemployment in the country and the Continent in order put smiles on the faces of our youth,” he stressed. — GB