Early Bird School wins award
The SAGE team of the Early Bird School at Taifa-Burkina in Accra has won a gold medal awarded by the Millennium Development Goal Project and a cash prize of $400 at the just-ended Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE) competition held in Abuja, Nigeria.
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The school, which represented the country on the international front, competed with students from 16 other countries across the world. The countries included Russia, USA, China, Singapore, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Rwanda and South Korea. They’s showcased their countries’ culture, business ideas, business networking and entrepreneurial skills.
The competition was in two categories — Social Enterprise Business (SEB) in which the SAGE team of St Augustine’s College in Cape Coast participated, and the Social Responsible Business (SRB), that was participated in by the SAGE team of the Early Bird School.
The team showcased its entrepreneurial skills in an educational software they had developed and a community service they undertook at a rehabilitation centre at Abofu, near Achimota in Accra, which benefited the inmates.
The school had earlier competed at the national level with some senior high schools like St Augustine’s College, Presbyterian Senior High School (PRESEC), Labone Senior High School and the Preset Pacesetters Senior High School during their first appearance and was the only junior high school among the group.
At the KAMA Conference Centre in Accra where the competition took place, the SAGE team of the Early Bird School showcased the entrepreneurial skills they had developed that would benefit the community and at the end of the programme, they emerged first runner-up in the competition, with the St Augustine’s College taking the ultimate award. By this level of performance, the SAGE teams of the school and the St Augustine’s College qualified to participate at the international level.
Professor Cutis Deberg, the Founder of SAGE Global and Mallam Bature Masari, Director-General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, were among the dignitaries who graced the occasion in Abuja.
The richest young entrepreneur in Africa, Ashish J. Thakkar, who is the founder of the Mara Group United Arab Emirates (UAE), was at the programme to encourage the young entrepreneurs who participated in the programme.
The Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE), which is a global community of teenagers creating a future through social enterprises, socially responsible businesses and community services, seeks to help the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders whose innovation and social enterprises will help address the major needs of the global community.
By Lydia Essel-Mensah/Daily Graphic/Ghana