Accra, May 20, GNA - The African University College of Communications (AUCC) at the weekend launched the ‘Richard Jonah Entrepreneurship and Academic Enhancement Programme’ (REAP) to equip students with practical entrepreneurial training and mentorship from business executives.
The programme would create opportunities for self-employment ventures, provide a framework for career development, facilitate team-building skills and ignite creativity and entrepreneurial traits in students.
The REAP is named after Richard Jonah in recognition of his astute entrepreneurship capabilities.
Dr Koryoe Anim-Wright, President of AUCC said the introduction of the programme was crucial since it would teach students to be innovative and innovators, creative, risk takers, and confident in the competitive market economy.
“The centerpiece of REAP is entrepreneurship, which will not only provide students with the ability and capacity to start their own business, but will also teach them important skills needed in today's business world to think creatively and ambitiously”, she added.
Dr Anim-Wright entreated students to embrace the programme to be self-employed and be productive in the global market.
Mr Kojo Yankah, Founder of AUCC reiterated that, Africa needed skills to propel the appropriate management of the country’s God-given resources for developmental agenda.
The Founder noted that the naming of the school of Business after Sir Sam Jonah was not for cosmetic reasons but was born out of a deep conviction that Africans should be proud of and cherish their own to enable and inspire the youth with their own successes.
Mr Yankah said the ceremony marked the sowing of seed that would institutionalise the essence of practically learning from the elders, business leaders and captains who had led teams to victory amidst challenges, failures, and unfriendly political and economic environments.
“One cannot lose sight of the fact that, Sir Samuel E. Jonah, the Executive chairman of Jonah capital, said if universities will continue to be useful to society, then there is a need to proactively shift the focus to developing graduates who are creative problem solvers”, he added.
He said graduates who are placed in any situation must have the requisite skills and training to identify opportunities and garner the requisite resources to turn those opportunities into viable businesses, employing themselves and others as well.
Sir Samuel E. Jonah commended the University for instituting the programme saying “You cannot teach entrepreneurship the same way you teach someone to read a balance sheet or to solve an arithmetic equation”.
He emphasized that the proper way to teach entrepreneurship in a university setting was to provide a safe space for experimentation with the guiding hand of a more experienced entrepreneur.
GNA
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