Adonten Senior High School (SHS) has won the 2026 National Business Pitch Competition (NBPC), emerging ahead of five other competing schools.
Aburi Girls’ Senior High School placed second, while Archbishop Potter Girls’ Senior High School took the third position.
The other participating schools were Keta Senior High School, St Peter’s Senior High School and Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School (PRESEC).
Held on the theme, “Augmenting Innovation,” the competition provided a platform for student companies to pitch business ideas developed through a 16-week entrepreneurship programme.
Competition
Speaking at the competition, the Executive Director of JA Ghana, Edem Amedi-Addie, said the students were not at the competition simply to pitch business ideas but to demonstrate what young people could achieve when given the opportunity to imagine, innovate and turn ideas into solutions.
He said JA Ghana had partnerships with the Ghana Education Service (GES), which gave the organisation access to senior high schools across the country and encouraged interested schools to apply to participate in the programme.
Mr Amedi-Addie said innovation was no longer just about having a good idea but involved finding ways to improve existing ideas through technology, creativity and collaboration.
“Entrepreneurship is not about having the perfect idea. It is about having the courage to test your idea, learn from failure and keep improving,” he said.
He said JA Ghana focused on financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship, with the aim of equipping young people to become global citizens capable of contributing to the economy.
He said the organisation wanted to change the mindset of young people from job seekers to job providers.
Mr Amedi-Addie disclosed that 26 schools were trained this year, 23 enrolled to participate, 17 progressed to the modelling stage, and nine schools submitted their reports and video commercials by the August deadline.
He said the winning school would go on to represent Ghana at the African level of the competition, providing the students with an opportunity to showcase their business idea beyond the national stage.
Job market
Delivering the keynote address, a computer engineer and research scientist, Dr Michael Wilson, said about 12 million people entered the African labour market every year, while only about three million jobs were created.
He used the analogy of a musical chairs game to explain the employment gap, and challenged young people to create opportunities for those who might otherwise be left without jobs.
He said the responsibility of young people was not only to become better individuals but also to create opportunities for others.
“The future of every people will survive if opportunity is put in the hands of those that the future belongs to,” he said.
He cited Neatfufu, a product developed from research at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), as an example of research being transformed into a product.
