5-day NIC bootcamp for 50 applicants takes off in K’dua

The Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) has started a five-day bootcamp for 50 selected applicants for the National Innovation Challenge (NIC).

The selected applicants would undergo training on pitching, entrepreneurship, innovation, business model development, market development and promotion, with a focus on how to scale up to achieve success during the implementation phase.

After the training, independent judges would use their sole discretion to select the top innovations and award them with grants of at least 50,000 dollars to support their market-ready innovations.

The Chairman of the Technical Committee of the NIC, Dr Boateng Agyenim, stated that the challenge was established by the senior minister’s office and being implemented by MESTI, as part of its 2024 Work plan under the Public Sector Reforms for Results Projects (PSRRP), funded by the World Bank.

He indicated that the challenge sought to build a culture of innovation among Ghanaian citizens and inject some energy and ideas of using innovation to create new ideas and ensure that the innovations were commercialised as well as to encourage the youth to compete for financial and technical support to accelerate their market-ready or tried and tested innovations.

“The NIC sought to identify potential innovators in the country and support them with some seed money to enable them expand their businesses or overcome any financial barrier and be able to bring out innovation that would support and create wealth in our society,” he explained.

He revealed that over 400 applications were received in November last year after advertisement of the challenge in the media and 50 of the applicants were selected to undergo the training.

He revealed that under the NIC framework, the applicants who had been selected have to undergo training after and pitch their innovations, after which the top ones would be selected and awarded.

For his part, the Deputy Director in charge of Policy Planning, Budgeting, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Public Sector Reform Secretariat, Dr David Essuman-Mensah, said in 2018, Ghana launched its Public Reforms Strategy and out of that strategy, a project was birthed known as Public Sector Reform for Results project, revealing that the project was supporting 10 ministries and public agencies to improve their service delivery.

He revealed that MESTI has been one of the agencies who had moved with NIC and as part of its activities to support applicants with grants to support their businesses and hoped that the selected applicants would come out with innovations that would enable them get the grants.

One of the selected innovators, Dr Henry Agbey of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), was glad for the opportunity and hoped that his innovation would be picked to enable him get the seed money and be able to transition idea from laboratory to large scale.

FROM AMA TEKYIWAA AMPADU AGYEMAN, KOFORIDUA