Thirty young entrepreneurs are to receive various amounts of money as grants from the government to support and expand their businesses.
The 30 were intensively selected from thousands of applications received for the fourth season of the Presidential Pitch competition.
The Presidential Pitch, organised by the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) under the Office of the President, was launched in 2017.
The initiative offers young Ghanaian entrepreneurs aged 18 to 35 the opportunity to pitch their business ideas in the hope of obtaining funding to operationalize them.
The specified number of beneficiaries is selected by a panel of seasoned and accomplished entrepreneurs.
The judges, in assessing the business ideas, look out for innovation, feasibility, expansion, and employment opportunities.
SEASON 4
The 30 who were selected from the pool of applications will receive amounts between GH₡30,000 and GH₡150,000 depending on their position from first to thirtieth.
On Friday, August 18, 2023, the first ten finalists pitched their ideas before President Akufo-Addo and four judges. The various presentations, including answers to questions from the judges, demonstrated the zeal and ingenuity of the upcoming entrepreneurs.
The owner of Relu Initiatives, Caleb Edem Mantey, a 27-year-old graduate of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) at Tarkwa, won this year’s edition.
He has designed an app that serves as a supplementary teaching and learning platform for engineering students. The app, called PetSim, is an interactive and immersive application of a petroleum drilling rig simulator that teaches postgraduate and undergraduate engineering students the practical operations of a drilling rig.
He won GH¢150,000 as the main grant, and President Akufo-Addo added GH¢50,000 from his purse.
The first ten of the 30 will receive GH¢150,000 to GH¢150,000, and the 11th to 30th positions will be given GH¢30,000 and GH¢50,000.
The event last Friday, dummy checks were presented to the ten who competed for the grand prize.
OPTIMISM
President Akufo-Addo sat through the pitching, which lasted over two hours, and presented the awards to the second and the winner.
In his remarks, he expressed optimism about the future of Ghana’s private sector, saying that it looked fertile.
Impressed with the various ideas pitched by the ten finalists, President Akufo-Addo opined that the sheer energy and can-do spirit demonstrated by the private sector had significantly contributed to economic growth and development.
According to him, “the Akufo-Addo administration is indeed building an entrepreneurial nation as part of the government’s quest to move our nation beyond aid.”
PREVIOUS
He recalled the significant successes chalked up from the previous seasons of the Presidential Pitch, mentioning the employment the winners of those seasons have created.
“Under seasons one, two, and three of the Presidential Pitch, 702 direct and thousands of indirect jobs have been created by our winners, with the majority of these jobs being established in rural communities,” he observed.
A deputy minister of finance, John Kumah, indicated that the government was committed to providing the requisite assistance to accelerate firm upgrading and spur innovation and entrepreneurship.
The Chief Executive Officer of NEIP, Kofi Ofosu Nkansah, said the fourth season received applications from various sectors, such as tourism and creative arts, food and beverage, agri-business, financial technology (Fintech), and technology.
He assured the 30 that were selected that even after the competition, the NEIP would continue to offer support for their pitch.
