Dr Cynthia Addae
Boost Media, in partnership with Optimum Homes, a real estate firm, is set to host Ghana’s first Ultimate Entrepreneur Competition to provide opportunity for young Ghanaian entrepreneurs to access the much-needed funding for their joint entrepreneurial ventures.
The competition is aimed at providing mentorship and other support services needed to significantly reduce startup failure rate in the country, and improve business performance of startups and their impact on the larger society.
The competition, with a star prize of GHC10,000, is expected to enhance job creation and poverty alleviation. It is also expected to promote the culture and spirit of entrepreneurship among young Ghanaians to boost the socio-economic development of the country.
The Chief Executive Officer of Boost Media, Cynthia Addae, who made the disclosure, said the reality nationwide entrepreneurship competition is designed to elicit, develop and showcase the latent innovative ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit in Ghanaian youths.
“Accordingly, the contestants will be given a set of tasks which they will have to complete in the course of the competition. Also, during the period of the competition, the contestants will develop and sharpen their entrepreneurial skills as they complete different tasks and progress through the different stages of the competition,” she stated.
Targets and eligibility
Dr Addae said the competition is targeted at innovative early-stage entrepreneurs as well as aspiring entrepreneurs. Accordingly, intending participants must be ‘entrepreneurial’ because the set of tasks to be carried out in the competition.
That, she indicated, will require contestants to draw from their entrepreneurial knowledge and competencies such as creativity, problem-solving skills, critical thinking, idea-generation, amongst others.
In order to be eligible to join the contest, aspiring contestants must meet the following criteria, which are being Ghanaian citizens between 15-35 years of age and resident in Ghana at the time of the competition. Additionally, the applicant must propose an innovative product/service that they desire to develop into a business.
She added that entry and registration take only three simple steps, including dialing *800*2525# to all networks to register.
Stages and tasks
She further disclosed that a certain number of contestants will be eliminated at each stage, and only those who scale through the challenges at each stage will proceed to the next.
In order to determine which of the entries resonates most with the Ghanaian public, she said, the entries of all the contestants will be posted, and subject to public voting. This will be the basis for the first three rounds of voting in the competition.
Then entries will be posted alongside with the contestants’ photo on the competition webpage and social media platforms. Contestants must carefully craft their ‘answer’ to impress, captivate, and attract the admiration and votes of the voting public.
“Performance appraisal of contestants at this stage will be based entirely on public voting. This means, contestants whose entry amasses the highest number of votes will be eligible to move to the next round of voting. This stage of the competition will require contestants to bring their entrepreneurial ingenuity and spirit to bear in completing the tasks and staying in the game. Contestants will be tasked on problem definition and opportunity identification, creative thinking and problem solving as well as innovation and commercialization,” she stressed.
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