Level 300 student wins GH¢10,000 startup capital

Sylvester Williams a level 300 student, reading Agriculture Science at the School of Agriculture, has emerged the winner of the Agrisolve Agribusiness Proposal Competition.

The competition was held as part of the University of Ghana (U.G), International Association of Agriculture Students (IAAS), annual “Green Week” celebration which comes off in the month of March of every year.

The competition, the first of its kind, brought together over 15 brilliant students who were tasked with the responsibility of developing their agribusiness ideas into business proposals. The proposals are then submitted to a five (5) member panel of judges. The judges analyzed all the proposals and the best five proposals are given the opportunity to give a power point presentation.

Sylvester Williams a 19year old entrepreneur in the making, emerged as the winner of the competition. He was awarded a GH¢10,000.00 startup capital for his business initiative by Agrisolve Ghana Limited, the sponsors of the competition. Apart from the price package, Agrisolve Company Limited will also provide technical support and offer consultancy services to the young chap.

In a speech, at the Grand Durbar of the weeklong event, the Marketing and Communications Executive of the company, Mr. Mawuli Atsu Dzikunoo, mentioned the importance of encouraging young entrepreneurship in order to the curb the unemployment rate in the country.

He also mentioned that being an Agribusiness organization, Agrisolve Ghana was interested in encouraging the youth to look in the direction of agriculture as a viable and rewarding business venture. This was because there were several income generating opportunities and prospects in the sector.

Mr. Dzikunoo ended by saying Agrisolve Ghana hopes to involve the youth in programs and projects in the near future that would enable a number of them appreciate the need to venture into lucrative agriculture.

Excited Sylvester Williams was beside himself with excitement at winning the price. He promises to take advantage of every opportunity this award will expose him to and looks forward to an exciting entrepreneurial experience with Agrisolve Ghana. The 1ST and 2nd runner ups are, Joshua Abbey and Anthony Dogbe.

In Ghana, entrepreneurship has become a sought after quality amongst the youth. It is support from corporate bodies like Agrisolve Ghana that the country needs in order to inspire the willingness to succeed amongst young and ambitious men and women. This would ensure that ideas don’t just die out and students will aspire to become employers rather than employees, thus curbing graduate unemployment.