Agrilab, a team of four brilliant students from the University of Ghana, is seeking financial support from the public to enable them to participate in the prestigious Hult Prize competition in the United States of America.
The team made up of Isaac Aboah, Henry Duah, Daniel Afriyie and Nana Akua Afriyie Busia will come up against 24 other teams from different parts of the world for a US$1 million prize to support their startup business idea.
The team’s participation in the Hult Prize competition will be preceded by an accelerator programme in London that is to equip them with business development training, coaching, and mentorship from some of the world’s most influential business leaders.
The total budget for the team is estimated at US$14, 651.05 (GHS77, 650.56) with the University of Ghana willing to bear 50 percent of the costs.
The team thus face a race against time to raise the remaining half of the budget, about GHS36,000, from various sources to enable them to participate successfully in the accelerator programme as well as the Hult Prize competition in New York.
The UG team already emerged winners from thousands of applications in the regional competition held in Malaysia.
But to win the ultimate US$1 million Hult Prize they have to beat competition from other 24 regional champions in a competition scheduled to be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in September.
Hult Prize
The Hult Prize competition is the World’s largest student movement for social good, started by Ahmed Ashkar and Bertil Hult in 2009 in partnership with the Hult Prize Business School and the United Nations.
It is an annual, year-long competition that welcomes college and university students from all over the world to compete for USD1 million in seed capital to help the winning team launch a social enterprise. Students are challenged to solve a pressing social issue around topics such as food security, water access, energy, and education.