Public Agenda (Accra)
Ama Achiaa Amankwah And Akwasi Fredua
18 September 2009
The grand finale of the educational entertainment TV reality show dubbed "Make Me a Success Enterprise Challenge" with the objective to encourage and empower the youth to be gainfully employed and motivate their peers has taken place in Accra.
VTV Satellite in association with Crystal TV, and Starwood Studios the producers of the programme explained that the programme gives young men and women from small poor communities, rural towns, unemployed and disadvantaged backgrounds, the opportunity to learn skills in different industries. They are also given seed money to set up their own businesses or pay for further education to improve their entrepreneurial skills.
It is aired on Crystal TV every Sunday at 8:30 pm and repeated on Monday at 11: 00 am.
Organizers said a major aim is for contestants to be trained to impact on their communities and prepare income generating schemes for young people as well as educate viewers on business skills and community development.
The reality show which entails scouting for contestants nationwide involves the selection of six of young women to vie for honours in the first episode. They were trained in different industries such as soap making, hairdressing, dressmaking, poultry, bead making, farming, and retail sales.
Ms Fathia Plange, the CEO of VTV Satellite, noted that at a time of global recession with very high unemployment and job losses worldwide, the project will no doubt serve as a beacon of hope and inspiration.
"We created this format to help the unemployed, the youth and deprived communities in Ghana, and to encourage the youth to go into meaningful jobs or to realize their entrepreneurial skills, thereby creating businesses leaders of tomorrow.
She explained that each of the six contestants had training in six different firms who awarded scores for each of them.
The organizers of the programme then used the scores from the six different firms as the only benchmark for determining the winners of the competition.
"Everyone has a potential to be great and what needs to be done is to look a little bit deeper within ourselves".
She advised the youth to learn the habit of savings. "No money is too small to be saved. "By saving money which you would have spent unwisely you can invest it in something beneficial in the future", she stressed.
Miss Mary Alley, 23, a resident of Dodowa and a former pupil of Mpataba Azuleti New Nzuluzu Samye (M.A.N.S.) Junior High School in the Western Region emerged winner of the Reality Show with 103 points.
She took home cash prize of GHc10,000 to set up a business of her choice in her community.
The second, third, fourth and fifth contestants were rewarded with seed monies of GHc5000, GHc3000, GHc2000 GHc1000 respectively.
Elated Mary Alley expressed her sincere gratitude to the organizers of the show and promised to use the money judiciously to set up a dressmaking facility in her community to train the youth in fashion design and dressmaking.
A speech read on behalf of the Minister of Trade and Industry, Miss Hannah by the Deputy Chief Industrial Promotion Officer of the ministry, Mr. Robert Baffour Tano, stated the ministry's commitment to the creation of a favourable environment to encourage more young people to set up their own businesses.
He stated the ministry has set up Small Scale Business Advisory Centers in all districts nationwide which organize training workshops to educate beneficiaries on the opportunities available in entrepreneurship.
He also said under the Gratis Foundation, government trains people in metal work, textiles, batik making, food processing and many others.
Mr. Tano was hopeful the reality show will serve as a good beginning for young people who would like to be entrepreneurs by providing inspiration and guidance, citing that a lot of giant multi-national companies like Nestle and Toyota and many others started as very small businesses but now employs thousands of people worldwide.
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