18-year old female entrepreneur wins maiden Presidential Pitch in Ghana

27 Jun 2018
Financial Nigeria

Summary

The ideas presented, according to Business Ghana, must have four characteristics – feasibility, innovativeness, scalability and impactful.

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo

Ms Vanessa Aisha Limann, an 18-year old female entrepreneur, has emerged the winner of the maiden Presidential Pitch, and received a GH₵50,000 investment package, approximately $10,500.00. The Ghanaian cedi exchanges at GH₵1/US$0.21 today, according to xe.com.

The GH₵50,000 is expected to be paid back in three years. Also, President Nana Akufo-Addo made a personal donation of GH₵25,000.

Limman, who processes and packages food, beat nine others who presented their ideas and answered questions from a panel of judges to win the competition.

The Presidential Pitch, organised by the Ministry of Business Development in line with the vision of the President to assist young entrepreneurs and improve livelihoods, offers young Ghanaians entrepreneurs that are between 18 and 35 years old the opportunity to market their business ideas and get financial assistance to implement those ideas.

Of the 200 entrepreneurs that participated, 10 finalists emerged. The second and third position received GH₵45,000 and GH₵40,000, respectively. While the fourth to tenth finalists went home with
GH₵30,000 each.

The ideas presented, according to Business Ghana, must have four characteristics – feasibility, innovativeness, scalability and impactful.

The President, while addressing the participants, affirms that the fastest way to deal with the challenges confronting the economy and the alarming rate of unemployment was the use of technology, entrepreneurship and business.

“Every great invention, such as the aeroplane by the Wright Brothers; Facebook and Google, which had become multi-billion industries, commenced with ideas of individuals,” said Akufo-Addo.

He, therefore, assured that the government would continue to create the environment for enterprising and innovative ideas of the youth to develop into great industries in the future.

“Currently, government policies had made Ghana a fertile ground for attracting investors, hence the need to grow local businesses that would have the muscle to compete with investors,” said Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Awal, Minister of Business Development.


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