For the second year running, members of Ashesi’s community were selected to participate in the New Business Challenge, held in locations in Ghana and in the Netherlands. The three Byran Achiampong '18, Kingsley Agyekum '17 and Audrey S-Darko '20 were selected from a competitive pool of over 300 students from both countries.
The New Business Challenge is a unique student business case competition where 20 Dutch and 20 Ghanaian students work together in teams for 2 months, on business cases from participating companies within the private sector. This challenge focuses on discovering new opportunities and maximizing the entrepreneurial potential of the participants.
As part of the cross-cultural experience, participants receive mentorship from business leaders in both countries while gaining insight into the international business landscape.
Areas addressed included renewable energy solutions for farmers, bridging the gaps in the animal and aquaculture sector, mobile farming for smallholder farmers, local entrepreneurship for sanitation facilities and sustainable IT solutions for junior high schools.
“The experience helped me gain an appreciation on how to approach business solutions to create global impact,” said Bryan Achiampong ’18, whose project focused on coming up with innovative solutions to help address the electronic waste phenomenon in Ghana. “NBC was a great opportunity to meet and work with other brilliant people from diverse backgrounds, and grow mentally through my experiences with them. I learned how to adapt to different cultures and work in teams of diverse personalities.
Over the five-week period, students from both countries not only gain insight into how they could help contribute to problem solving within the local and global communities, participants also had the opportunity to learn about new cultures and expand their networks. “Despite our differences as individuals, sharing a sense of purpose truly moulded me into being more understanding of others and emotionally intelligent.”
