Volta Premier Fm
Margaret Achadi, a Level 300 HND Marketing student of Ho Technical University won the 3rd edition of the CIMG-GOIL Entrepreneurial Marketing & Innovation awards 2021 held at the GM Afeti Auditorium on Wednesday, July 7, 2021.
The award which is intended to develop the entrepreneurial skills of students was themed: “Entrepreneurship and Innovation, a tool for job creation in the era of COVID-19”.
Chairman of the Awards Committee, Dr. Ametefe Normanyo, said a total of 29 student businesses applied for this year’s competition, of which 16 were shortlisted and taken through 2-week intensive business coaching session. And after a rigorous competitive process, six of them were selected to compete for the ultimate prize.
Margaret, through her business – Mimi’s Art-Africa, designed different shapes of decorative lamps, using PVC pipes to emerged victorious, and walked away with a cheque of Ghc7,000.
The runner-up, Etornam Bismark Mensah, (Fetuli Foods) of the Department of Hospitality & Tourism Management, was awarded a cheque of Ghc 6,000,
for his Koobi Cube (salted tilapia cube) business idea.
Moroe Farms represented by Joseph Kwame Dumenyo, Mark Amekpor and Seenam Mawunyo Maud Gati, all of HND Agric Engineering came third, whiles the 4th position was occupied by a HND Fashion Design student, Rebecca Asiwome Dewu with her Beck’s Tea Bag business idea.
JAYH Production’s Soap & Detergents business idea got Jones Kwamehene, Kingsley Akompi and Shine Akuffo the 5th position, and the 6th place went to MCRTINS Street Chai (Tea)’s team made up of Genevieve Mawufemor Agbenyadzi, Glover Justice Tsodzine and Omar Kadiri, all of HND Food Science & Technology.
Certificate of participation was presented to all the 16 shortlisted students.
In a remark by the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof. Ben Q. Honyenuga, expressed delight at the innovations exhibited by the participants.
He thus, directed the coordinators of the scheme to continue to groom all the participants so that they can compete on a national level.
The Vice-Chancellor also appealed to the sponsors (CIMG-GOIL) to allocate more funds to enable the University to expand the scope of the competition to cover more students, since other institutions were not using the allocation given them.
“HTU has capacity with all our students, then we can pitch 100 competitors, then all our students will be the beneficiaries.”
In an address delivered on behalf of the Sponsors, Mr. Famous Nazah, Regional Manager of Goil, said the company’s corporate social responsibility strategy, was anchored safely on the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.
This, he noted was to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life long learning opportunity for all.
He promised GOIL’s continous support to the scheme and see to the successful funding of the 5- year partnership.
The HTU-CIMG/GOIL Entrepreneurial Marketing and Innovation Awards was launched in March 2019 after an earlier launch of the Student Leadership Awards Scheme by Mr. Patrick Akorli,then Managing Director of GOIL Ghana Limited and the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana, Marketing Man of the year 2015.
The scheme has GH 100,000 donation staggered over a 5-year period.
By: Suzy Bright Salitsi
