Kumasi Center partners Barclays Bank Ghana on pilot entrepreneurship series program

Kumasi Center for Lifelong Learning-KCLL in partnership with Barclays Bank Ghana has piloted a program to offer training on entrepreneurship, business development and leadership for small business owners, budding entrepreneurs and community leaders. The program dubbed, entrepreneurship series aims to create a platform where Barclays Bank staff through Corporate Social Responsibility will offer their expertise to train and inspire, enhancing entrepreneurship and small business development in Ghana in collaboration with Kumasi Center staff and other resource persons.

Kumasi Center, Executive Director outlines program vission

Entrepreneurship series to be held once every month and will seek to create a community of doers poised to use their skills to bring about change and development. Identifiable groups such as youth organizations, trade groups and associations are being targeted with such a program. To this end, a pilot has been rolled out at the North Suntreso Assembly of the Church of Pentecost with 50 participants mainly from the Youth Association on Saturday, 17th November, 2012.

Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, Executive Director of Kumasi Center, highlighted the importance of entrepreneurship and the need to volunteer skills set for community development, adding that a partnership with Barclays Bank is set to create the platform to enhance efforts of groups and individuals working to promote activities that address social needs, solves problems and build capacity of a critical mass of people to lead transformation across communities.

Irene Asante of Barclays Bank addresses participants

Highlighting Barclays Bank’s corporate strategy and community outreach, a staff of the Bank, Irene Darko Asante remarked that the Bank appreciates opportunities to partner with organizations such as Kumasi Center aimed at using the skills set of their staff to inspire and build capacity for change in our communities. Barclays through the Junior Achievers Program support initiatives from young people who have solid ideas aimed at solving challenges within our communities, hence she urged participants to enrol when the applications are opened. Touching on the need to volunteer skills set, she reiterated how important this is to the bank, which is why the entrepreneurship series is being supported.

Rasheeda Yehuza, founder ClickTrade Ghana speaks about initiative

A presentation was also made by the founders of ClickTradeGhana, Rasheeda Mandeeya Yehuza and Christopher Amanor, final year students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology-KNUST. ClickTradeGhana is a web based platform that makes it possible for buyers and sellers to interact for the exchange of goods and services. The co-founders of the web based platform touched on the need to volunteer as they have done in the past and on-going in helping to teach technology related skills for problem solving and resolving to also offer to teach such skills to members of the church youth association. They further stated that entrepreneurship is not really about what you learn in school, but mainly on the need to recognize challenges as opportunities in disguise, hence the need to develop solutions to address them. The youth Leader of the Church, Norbert Gyan thanked organizers and expressed preparedness to work together to advance the well-being of members and the society at large.

Cross section of participants

In a statement, the Executive Director of Kumasi Center outlined that the entrepreneurship series will be launched in January 2013 and will be held at least once monthly . Among some of the areas to be tackled in the coming year includes: enterprise development, life skills, financial literacy, speak with Dr. Entrepreneur, shadow an entrepreneur among other exciting initiatives.