Tertiary Business Sense Challenge: KNUST joins UEW, UCC for finals

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is one step closer to retaining its title as the defending champions of the Graphic Business Tertiary Business Sense Challenge (TBSC). 

KNUST secured its place in the finals for a third consecutive time after thrashing first-time semi-finalist, Academic City University College (ACUC), in a 67.8 point to 48.4 point thriller in the last semi-final contest, which was held in Accra yesterday.

In the grand finale, KNUST will test its might against first-time finalist, University of Education, Winneba, and two-time champion, University of Cape Coast (UCC), who secured its place after beating the University of Ghana (UG) and the Ghana Communication Technology University (GCTU) respectively in the first and second semi-final contests.

It will be held on Thursday, October 19, 2023 at the National Theatre in Accra.  

TBSC

The TBSC is a tertiary business schools quiz organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited's (GCGL) Graphic Business, in collaboration with the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG), to encourage intellectual development among students in various tertiary institutions across the country.

As the country's leading economic and financial newspaper, the Graphic Business believes that the challenge will serve as a fertile ground for nurturing students' and small business owners’ interest in business issues and entrepreneurship in general.

It also provides the contestants with the opportunity to demonstrate their intellectual prowess which could earn their schools verified bragging rights.

This year’s competition, which is the fifth version, is on the theme: "Preparation Ahead of Opportunity: Business as a Way of Life”.

The quizmaster, Alhassan Trawule, asked the students questions on business theories, word problems requiring calculations, business case of the day, questions pertaining to articles from the Graphic Business newspaper and riddle-based quizzes.

Slow start

The contest got off to a slow start as both teams were unable to answer majority of the questions in the first and second rounds.

However, KNUST, represented by Prince Asante Adofo, Eric Ofosu and Kelvin Nketiah Sarfo, gained an early lead, securing 12 points in both rounds, while the ACUC trio, Eugene Kwame Asiedu-Dartey, Daniel Amanor and Enoch Banyerah, had seven points in the first round and three points in the second.

The contest eventually came alive during the third and fourth rounds which had to do with the business case of the day, where both teams delivered a presentation and answered questions pertaining to articles from the Graphic Business newspaper on a true/false section.

The ACUC, who was second best in the southern zone after UG, garnered an average of 7.4 points for its presentation and 28 points for the fourth round, while KNUST, who was champion of the northern zone, secured 7.8 points for the presentation and 30 points in the fourth round.

In a rather dull fifth round, which had to do with riddles on various business and financial concepts, KNUST only secured six points, with its first-time semi-finalist opponent, ACUC, securing three points.

Fear us

In an interview with the Daily Graphic after the competition, the KNUST team lead, Mr Sarfo, cautioned their final contenders, UEW, who has secured the highest points on average in the competition so far, and UCC to fear them despite acknowledging that his team did not put up the best of performances.

“We know the other schools are well prepared and so based on the contest we have had today, we are going to do our homework well, sit down and prepare well to face them.

We have done it before and we still have the capacity,” Mr Sarfo added.