Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice President of Ghana, speaking at the unveiling ceremony of University of Ghana’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programme (UGIEP) stated that UGIEP is in line with government’s strategic agenda for the economy.

According to the Vice President, at the heart of the UGEIP was empowerment, leverage and value creation. Thus, he observed that the purposes of UGEIP are in line with government’s ambition to create an educational structure and content which is not merely about passing examinations, but building character, nurturing values, and raising literates and confident citizens who could think critically.

“These objectives are in line with our government’s strategic focus for the economy and human capital development within this COVID-19 era. The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government are working to leave a legacy of a knowledge-based, capable and resilient economy in the context of the fourth Industrial Revolution.”
Dr Bawumia

Dr Bawumia further indicated that government’s strategic policies of human capital development, entrepreneurship, skills development, and education would likewise provide a platform for similar entrepreneurship programmes to be scaled up, leveraging on the digitalisation agenda.

“Government is acutely aware that entrepreneurship will not thrive in an environment with difficulties in doing business.”
Dr Bawumia

The Vice President subsequently affirmed that, government is working to eliminate all bottlenecks in doing business as fast as possible. He observed that the use of National Identification Card as a unique identifier, the digitisation of the processes at the Registrar General’s Department and the passage of Act 992, give specific focus to businesses as part of the institutional innovations to grow and support entrepreneurship.

Meanwhile, he reiterated government’s commitment to creating an enabling environment for businesses to flourish.

“Our pledge as a government is to continue to create the right environment to allow the initiatives and companies started through this programme to thrive. In so doing I am optimistic that this programme will unearth innovations and support and grow companies.”
Dr Bawumia

Moreover, the Vice President Dr Bawumia noted that over 250,000 young people enter the job market every year which put pressure on the limited employment opportunities in the country.
As a result, getting the population employed remained a major socio-economic challenge. He added that “We need to create new jobs or help provide access to existing job vacancies”.

Consequently, Dr Bawumia tasked the managers of UGIEP to work collaboratively with the existing initiatives such as the Youth Development Authority, the Youth Enterprises Fund, the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme, and the Ghana Enterprises Agency to help young people to create sustainable jobs and opportunities.

He further reiterated that government was determined to building a nation with mutual trust and economic opportunities for all, irrespective of one’s background.

Dr Bawumia therefore, urged the key stakeholders, students, alumni, faculty, agencies and corporations to work collaboratively to ensure that the approach yielded the right results.

Meanwhile, the innovation and entrepreneurship programme is a non-academic programme under the auspices of the Vice-Chancellor’s Office, which seeks to foster entrepreneurship and innovation culture at the University. In addition, UGIEP is an intervention aimed at building the competences of students and young entrepreneurs to add value to products and services.

It is a $100,000 Start-up programme that would provide funding and coaching to students and young entrepreneurs, being implemented in partnership with the Global Entrepreneurship Network.