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New Africa Foundation has launched a new challenge to unearth the entrepreneurial skills of the Ghanaian youth and to provide financial support for start-ups.

The challenge dubbed "The University Challenge: Entrepreneurship/Leadership/Wealth Creation" was officially unveiled at the University of Professional Studies - Accra (UPSA) on Thursday, December 21, 2023.

The event saw a gathering of youth entrepreneurs who were taken through the nitty-gritty of the challenge.

The University Challenge

"The University Challenge" is a 10 to 13-week inter-University competition designed to cultivate student entrepreneurs and forster leadership, creating wealth for the youth and significantly contributing to the development of Ghana's economy.

The essence of this concept is to encourage students to embark on business ventures before graduating from their various Universities.

Ten (10) Universities have been selected by the New Africa Foundation to participate in the challenge with each team to receive up to GHC 50,000 mobilization funds to help them advance their jobs.

The competition will begin with an audition in January next year and the auditionees shortlisted to compete for an ultimate prize of 1 millon cedis.

This amount of 1 million cedis that is to be given to the winner of "The University Challenge" will come with a fund manager who will ensure the money serves its purpose.

This initiative will empower the youth to venture into entrepreneurship, changing the status quo and building a nation of youth who do not depend on government for job creation but carve a niche for themselves.

The University Challenge is an annual programme and requirements for participating in this challenge are interested students must be from the selected schools working with New Africa Foundation and selected among the top 5 to earn a spot in the team which will represent their school.

Students who seek to participate in the competition are encouraged to contact the office of the University Challenge on all social media platforms using the handle, UniChallengegh, or visit www.newafricafoundation.org for more information.

Launch

During the programme, a panel of youth entrepreneurs shared their stories and work challenges as well as experiences to inspire their fellow youth and Ghanaians at large to create their own jobs.

A youth entrepreneur named Rhoda Oslo, Chief Executive for Hypenet Digital and Huge Studios Print House, shared her story of how she built her own job immediately after internship, stating it was possible for her to become an entrepreneur because she challenged herself not to stay home but rather put her special abilities into good use.

Another panel member, Fiifi B. Welsing-Jones, Chief Executive Officer of Chordic Technologies who is into Information Technology (IT), encouraged his peers to embrace entrepreneurship like he's done by creating an opportunity to connect people through technology.

Another speaker, a student of the University of Ghana who is into agriculture, noted it was challenging for him to combine starting his own business and his academics, nonetheless he finds it worthy to have risen above the odds to become a student leader.

He urged the youth to pursue their passion and churn it into a lucrative business.

As the world is evolving with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the youth entrepreneurs disclosed how they have taken advantage of the new trends to improve their work.

Rhoda revealed she has innovatively ventured into other areas of her job utilizing the new technology by adding up other chains to catch up with the fast-moving world.