Two female students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have emerged winners of the Second edition of the Presidential Pitch Competition. Miss Emily Otoo Quayson, a Mastercard Scholar alumnus of KNUST from the Department of Civil Engineering and Miss Matilda Asantewaa Sampong a third year Business Administration student who represented KNUST as a team, were awarded GH¢60,000 as investment package and GH¢40,000 personal donation from the President of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo.
They beat nine other teams who presented their ideas and answered questions before His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo, Ministers of State and Members of the Diplomatic Corps. The ideas presented exhibited four characteristics: feasibility, innovation, scalability and impact.
According to the winning team, their product, Floyabana Pad is produced by using banana and plantain fibre to produce sanitary pads. The business is targeted at rural women who cannot afford sanitary pads on the Ghanaian market, they revealed. The winners assured that the amount received be committed to expanding their business.
The President in his keynote speech commended the finalists for their creativity and encouraged them to continue to develop their talents and skills. He expressed optimism that their contributions would lead to more youth incubating ideas and developing them into enterprises that would create jobs for the teeming youth.
The Presidential Pitch is a project designed and organised by the Ministry of Business Development to offer young Ghanaian entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35 the opportunity to market their business ideas and get financial assistance to implement those ideas.
The project is in line with the President’s vision to assist young entrepreneurs to nurture their business ideas and improve livelihoods to drive economic growth. Two Hundred competitors participated in the competition.
