Invent to change Ghana – Pro-VC lauds KNUST’s 4th ENACTUS Award
Acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor Mark Adom Asamoah, is pushing for more innovations from students to transform Ghana.
On the back of a fourth consecutive win by KNUST at the ENACTUS national experiential learning competition, he has urged students to pursue problem-solving interventions to benefit the county.
Professor Asamoah congratulated students that won the 2020 edition held on 6th -17th July 2020 after a short event by the team to present the trophy to the university management.
KNUST grabs the 2020 Enactus Award for the 4th consecutive time
Professor Nathaniel Boso, Faculty Mentor of the team, said KNUST has been emerging winners of the national competition since 2017. He announced that the KNUST team will represent Ghana in the upcoming virtual ENACTUS World Cup in mid-September, 2020.
Speaking on behalf of the team members, Ms. Georgina Asamoah said that her group presented three innovative projects namely Welfed, ReL, and Effishent.
The Welfed project, she explained, is an agricultural project that educates farmers on appropriate methods used in the preservation of tomatoes. They designed a zero-emission cooling chamber that would keep tomatoes fresh for 15-20 days after harvest.
Speaking on the Remote learning Project (ReL), Ms. Asamoah said that the project focused on providing comprehensive disability-friendly virtual learning platforms for hearing-impaired high school students.
The third project, Effishet, is a partnership between Enactus KNUST and Enactus Mannheim University, Germany. The project will be piloted at Bomso and Weweso Basic Schools. The project focuses on planting food supplements with hydroponics models to help curb malnutrition among school children.
Mr. Evans Hockey, Programs Manager of Enactus Ghana, noted that Enactus International is a global non-profit organisation, which empowers University students to use their entrepreneurial skills to come up with innovative projects to solve challenges in their communities.
Mr. Hockey said that the organisation currently has over 72,000 students with entrepreneurial, values-driven social innovators across 1,730 campuses in 36 countries, and positively impacting the lives of 1.3 million people each year.
He said these students are guided by educators and supported by business leaders, teams of students’ conduct need assessments in their community, identify potential solutions to complex issues, and implement community impact projects.
This results in communities benefiting from collaboration and fresh innovation, plus students gain valuable experience to advance their personal and professional lives.