University of Ghana graduate wins ultimate prize at 3rd Youth Global Forum

A recent graduate of the University of Ghana, Ms. Aurelia Abena Attipoe, has emerged overall winner of the 3rd Annual Youth Global Forum for her project titled “The Pitch Hub”.

This year’s forum was hosted in Dubai, with support from the General Authority of Youth and Sports UAE from November 23 to 27, 2017.

Aurelia received the vast majority of votes from both the delegates and the Panel of experts.

Despite obtaining a degree in Computer Science, Attipoe felt her calling elsewhere. She started as a graduate trainee in the role of an SME Specialist at the Busy Ghana.

There, she learnt how many Ghanaians have great business ideas that could positively affect communities, but were not doing a great job at selling them.

"When Ghana moves forward, Africa moves forward and when Africa moves forward, the whole world moves forward," she said in her victory speech.

The Pitch Hub is a training program aimed at equipping young Ghanaian social entrepreneurs with the soft skills they need to pitch their business ideas to secure funding and the skills required to build and sustain their businesses.

Ms Attipoe was awarded with Youth Time’s Idea Grant in order to implement her idea and a sponsorship to receive an AIESEC Leadership development experience through one of the AIESEC Exchange programs.

The Youth Global Forum is an annual event organized by the Youth Time International Movement with support from the government of the host country.

The forum brought together experts and delegates from a diverse range of countries and backgrounds to discuss the theme: Ethical Entrepreneurship in the time of a competitive knowledge based economy. Delegates were taken through workshops and masterclasses to shed more light on the theme.

During the application process, delegates were required to submit their project ideas. Out of the over 150 projects ideas submitted, thirteen delegates were selected to present their projects with one winner receiving the Youth Time’s Idea Grant in order to implement their project.

Due to the competitiveness of the project presentations, some additional prizes were awarded. These prizes include, Internships with AIESEC, IPMI International Business School in Jakarta, full master’s scholarship at Zagreb School of Business in Croatia and Anglo American University in Prague.