Enactus-University of Ghana has won the 2014 Enactus Ghana national competition.
Enactus, formerly known as Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) is an international non-profit organization that brings together student, academic and business leaders who are committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in need.
Guided by academic advisors and business experts, the student leaders of Enactus create and implement community empowerment projects around the globe, to transform lives, and help students develop skills and attitudes that are essential for leadership in an ever-changing world.
This year’s competition brought together 8 competing Enactus teams from various tertiary institutions across the country. As part of the two-day program, there was a Cocoa forum sponsored by the Hershey Company, during which stakeholders in the Cocoa Industry discussed and answered questions regarding challenges and new developments in the industry. Enactus- University of Ghana President, Prince Dagadu spoke on behalf of all Enactus Ghana teams during this forum.
The competing schools gave presentations on the community development projects that they had undertaken. The national champions, Enactus-University of Ghana, presented three projects that they had undertaken.
Under the first project, christened Cocopays, they, with the help of resource persons from the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) trained cocoa farmers in a village called Nsutam in the Eastern region on modern best farming practices such as fertilizer application and pest/weed control. Enactus-UG also trained the cocoa farmers to use cocoa husk in making local soap, popularly known as “Alata Samina” which was packaged nicely for sale. This was adjudged as the best Cocoa project by The Hershey Company, sponsors of Enactus Cocoa projects.
The second project, “Korle Smiles”, involved the training of some unemployed and under-employed women in Korle Gonno, a suburb of Accra in liquid soap making. The women now produce and sell the nicely packaged liquid soap as a source of livelihood.
The third project is called KwikStart. Under this project, Enactus-UG supported the Women’s Fellowship of the E.P. Church West Volta Presbytery to improve the packaging and marketing of their Instant Hausa Koko product. This has resulted in a remarkable increase in sales.
Four schools made it to the final stage of the competition. University College of Management Studies (UCOMS) and Ho Polytechnic occupied the first and second runner up positions respectively while Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) occupied the fourth position.
As winners, University of Ghana will represent Ghana at the Enactus World Cup in China between 22nd and 24th October this year.
