The University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Service Secretariat (NSS) to support the school’s Enterprise and Innovation Centre (UEIC).
The partnership is to, among other things empower UPSA students and graduates with entrepreneurial abilities to grow more businesses and to contribute to the economic explosion in the country.
The NSS will be supporting the initiative by posting National Service Personnel to the UPSA Enterprise and Innovation Centre to enable them to use their service period to develop and grow their businesses.
Other partners in the deal are Ghartey and Ghartey, Realteck and Innohub.
It is under the auspices of the Faculty of Management Studies and seeks to fill a critical gap in the employment of youth and provide a platform for exhibition, interaction, and mentoring.
“By signing this MoU, the Management of UPSA hopes to deepen its ties with the NSS to support more UPSA graduates with enterprise and innovative ideas through this platform and to help groom them as successful entrepreneurs for the nation and the world at large”, the UPSA Pro-Vice-Chancellor said.
Over the years, UPSA has positioned itself strategically as a Centre of Excellence, blending scholarship with professionalism with the aim of training entrepreneurial graduates.
It is in this light that Management believes an innovative idea such as this agreement presents stakeholders of the University, the opportunity to critically engage pertinent issues affecting the training and practice of various programmes, while also providing mentorship to its students.
The school recently launched the UPSA Enterprise and Innovation Centre (UEIC).
This Centre has five main pillars; the UPSA Ideation LAB, UPSA Business Bootcamp UPSA Venture Lab, UPSA Capital Matching Platform, and UPSA Enterprise Partners. The Venture Lab and Entrepreneurial Program has its focus on graduates who have the drive to set up their own businesses and be their own employers.
The Venture Lab runs a system that trains two streams of entrepreneurs; those venturing into agribusiness and others into various sectors of business operations.
It currently hosts 15 graduates who are National Service Personnel, working assiduously to set up their businesses.
Out of these 15, six are into agribusiness, while nine are into other sectors of business.
Management of the UPSA is very optimistic that the opportunity offered by this laudable initiative, by undoubtedly, the fastest-growing public university in Ghana; the University of Professional Studies, Accra will go a long way to engineer an entrepreneurial nation.