Fidelity Bank builds capacity of SHS students

Fidelity Bank Ghana and Environment 360 have held a programme that seeks to introduce senior high school (SHS) students to business concepts and entrepreneurship.

Described by Forbes as one of the “five leading global programmes supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs”, the programme dubbed, ‘Enterprise Challenge’, works with young people to develop business ideas that positively impact environmental issues in their communities.

A release issued in Accra yesterday said 25 teams participated in the 2022/23 edition of the programme with five teams eventually being shortlisted for the finals.

The teams, which participated in the finals included Team Mervs from Kinbu SHS, Team Doyen from Sacred Heart SHS, Teams Texco and Flow from His Majesty’s SHS and Team Phoenix from Brainy Brain SHS.

They were then given four sessions with a green business mentor to support each team to fine-tune their business ideas with particular emphasis on a cost and profit structure, as well as effective sales pitching techniques ahead of the final event.

The winning pitch came from an all-female team from Kinbu SHS.

They presented an innovative green business concept of turning palm kernel waste, generated from making palm oil, into briquettes to replace the use of charcoal and wood cooking fuel.

This environmentally friendly alternative to traditional cooking fuel is compact and smokeless and devoid of any harmful effect on human health.

For their prize, the team received seed money from Fidelity Bank to start the process of registering their business and building on their business idea and turning it into a viable commercial entity Speaking at the event, the founder of Fidelity Bank and a member of the Prince’s  Trust International Africa Advisory Board, Edward Effah, expressed his delight at the diligence and business acumen demonstrated by the students.

“Looking at the ideas presented by our students today, I can confidently say that Ghana indeed has a bright future.

The ability of these young ones to develop environmentally friendly green business ideas and the confidence with which they articulated these ideas is quite impressive.

I am particularly impressed with their level of environmental awareness, and I believe such programmes will go a long way to help Ghana and Africa achieve the SDGs,” he said in the release.

Presenting the prize to the team, the Head, Digital and Brand Marketing of Fidelity Bank, Eric Frempong Amponsah, said: “Fidelity Bank is proud to partner with Prince’s Trust International on this programme.

Serving the community is one of our core values and education is a key pillar of our social impact initiatives.”