The University of Ghana (UG) has begun the third stage of a project designed to increase students' capacity for creating profitable enterprises.
The initiative, known as the "Innovation for African Universities Connecting Accra project," is being led by the university's Office of Research, Innovation and Development (ORID), and its ultimate goal is to increase universities' capacity to take part in and make significant contributions as key players within the entrepreneurship ecosystem in their respective regions.
As a result, it aims to create a national ecosystem capable of innovation while offering venture assistance programmes to participants and higher education institutions.
The University of Cape Coast, Impact Hub Accra, Imperial College London, and the British Council are partners on the initiative, which is funded by the British Council.
The University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), which will house participants under its Innovation and Incubation Hub known as UGBS Nest, will carry out the initiative.
The initiative's second phase, which finished in July 2022, was officially closed out at the inauguration event held yesterday in Accra.
Instrumental
Prof. Felix Ankomah Asante, the pro-vice chancellor for research, innovation, and development at UG, hinted that the programme has helped to alter the African entrepreneurial sector by supporting entrepreneurship, innovation, and research and development.
However, he pointed out that as the programme entered its third phase, all of its participants and stakeholders were at a crucial juncture in its development, where they had to build on past triumphs and keep fostering innovation and expansion of the nation's entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Acceptance
In an acceptance speech read on her behalf, Dr. Keren Naa Abeka Arthur, director of the UCC Design, Thinking and Innovation Hub, said that as the project's newest participant, the university saw the partnership as an opportunity to jointly develop entrepreneurship support systems that took into account the distinctive features of public universities and the Ghanaian society.
Commendation
Akorfa Dawson, the British Council's Programme Manager for Higher Education, praised the University of Ghana for establishing an innovation fund to support the program's graduates and their companies after it was finished.
Additionally, she praised the university for growing and broadening its influence to include other universities, noting that the nation had been chosen to host the project's regional showcase.
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