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General News of Sunday, July 7th, 2019
Source: ghananewsagency.org
2019-07-07
Dr. Daniel Dzidzienyo at the launch
The Center for the Improvement of Crops in West Africa (WACCI) of the University of Ghana (UG), in collaboration with the Mbadachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in the United States, launched a five-week entrepreneurship program.
The initiative called "Global Startup Labs (GSL) Entrepreneurship Program" aims to train young technology entrepreneurs in Ghana. It was launched by Dr. Daniel K. Dzidzienyo, Deputy Project Manager of the Center of Excellence for Africa (ACE), on behalf of Professor Eric. Y. Danquah, founding director of WACCI.
The MIT-funded program saw more than 75% of participants continue their post-program starts, with more than 30 starts still active from the beginning.
This involves developing teaching materials, software technologies, platforms and networks that enable students to innovate in the field of information and communication technologies to solve fundamental problems in agriculture and agri-food.
As part of this program, investors would be invited to participate in the last day of operations to allow trainees to benefit from the best ideas to fund the launch of new businesses.
Speaking at the launch at the University of Ghana in Accra, Mr Dzidzienyo reiterated the Center's commitment to becoming a hub of agricultural innovation and entrepreneurship .
He added that WACCI defended the problems badociated with the low productivity of staple crops grown by smallholder farmers in Africa and led the transformation of the seed sector for food security through the training of plant breeding scientists at the grbadroots level. Ph.D. and Seed Science and Technology at the MPhil Level.
Dzidzienyo said the GSL program, which consisted of a five-week intensive training camp, was designed to teach students the skills needed to start a start-up business.
"We hope that at the end of the training, you will use your knowledge and skills to create companies that will create jobs and stimulate economic growth," he added.
Dr. Dzidzienyo said that WACCI, as part of the World Bank's ACE project, was paving the way for becoming a world-clbad ACE in agricultural innovation and entrepreneurship.
He said that this was evident in the creation of the business cluster for agricultural innovation, which would allow the center to train young graduates and entrepreneurs.
"We believe that a program such as the GSL is only the beginning of this grand vision of the center championed by our visionary and innovative director," he said.
Sending to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr. Ari Jacobovits, Program Officer at MIT-Africa, stated that GSL was created by a group of African MIT students , who had recognized the MIT framework for the teaching of entrepreneurship, had adopted it and introduced it into other universities.
Over the years, it has taken different forms, different themes, introduced technical components and introduced agricultural components.
Mr. Jacobovits, who described the program as a practical project, asked students to use their framework to create jobs, GSL having been very successful around the world.
Dr. Irene Susana Egyir, Lecturer at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agri-Food of the University of Ghana, also told GNA that the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1, which speaks of zero hunger, depended on the resolution of agricultural problems.
Mr. Egyir said that in terms of post-harvest management, it was prudent to consider transportation, because once production is complete, there would be a demand for these products at the other end.
"Only when we strengthen agriculture will quality products be available, distribution will be over and we will be able to maintain food production," she added.
Dr John SY, coordinator of the WACCI-MIT global startup lab program Eleblu and Jennifer Saint-Acquaye expressed their joy at the partnership's opportunity to nurture young entrepreneurs and create the jobs needed by young people .
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