After some three months of competing, an Ashesi freshman team powered through nineteen other competing teams to win second prize at the second edition of Unilever Ghana’s Ideatrophy. The all-female team, nicknamed Lifebuoy Life-savers, was made up of Hickmat Nasarah Abdulai ’17, Tobel Sylvia Eze-Okoli ’17 and Maame Yaa Afriyie Poku ’17. The competition, open to all universities in Ghana, saw participation from the University of Ghana, Central University College, the University of Science and Technology and the University of Cape Coast, among several others.
The teams had to develop an innovative marketing campaign, using Unilever’s Lifebuoy brand, which would encourage hand washing among women and children in communities that Unilever serves. Overall, two Ashesi teams made it into the final six of the competition, with the other team also being made up of freshmen, Bamfo Kwabena Ampadu ’17, Nana-Araba Torson ’17 and Ayele Commodore-Mensah ’17.
The Ideatrophy is a national competition, organised by Unilever Ghana, which allows university students to develop creative solutions to a Unilever business problem, through which the students get to understand how businesses work while developing their own skills. A team from Ashesi won the first edition of the competition, but this year, it was a close race between the team from Ashesi, and the team from the University of Science and Technology that ultimately won first-place.
“It was tough balancing school work with the requirements of the competition,” said Hiickmat Abdulai ’17, team leader for the Lifebuoy Life-savers. “Being in the competition taught us a lot though; we learned several things during the Bootcamp sessions, for example – on public speaking, teamwork and communication, among others – that have really helped me build a lot of self-confidence. It was a great experience!”