The New Business Challenge (NBC) is a unique business case competition where 20 Dutch and 20 Ghanaian students/young professionals work together for 2 months in equally mixed teams on real-life business challenges from 5 companies.

Selected participants go on a 10-day study trip in the Netherlands and a 10-day study trip in Ghana to explore the business case, leading up to developing their innovative solutions to their business cases.

The NBC is all about discovering new opportunities for companies in private sector and about increasing the entrepreneurial skills of the participants to prepare them for the labour market or to start their own business.

This year the following companies are participating in the NBC: Allianz Insurance, Closing The Loop, Tempohousing, Solidaridad and Farmerline.

The NBC offers the businesses a unique opportunity to uncover potential opportunities for trade and investment in Ghana while increasing their network across borders. This year’s final will take place on the 8th of August and will be held at the Netherlands Ambassador’s Residence in Accra.

During this day, the teams will be showcasing their solutions, and the independent jury will announce the winning team of the New Business Challenge 2019.

This edition is already the 6th edition of the New Business Challenge. In total, the NBC has impacted 236 young professionals so far and 28 Dutch-Ghanaian companies participated.

50% of all the companies did implement the ideas which the participants came up with and 24% of the companies hired interns/employees. After the NBC, 50% of the Ghanaian participants and 20% of the Dutch participants started their own company. The main thrust of this initiative is to encourage innovative entrepreneurship and an exchange of knowledge between the Netherlands and Ghana.

The New Business Challenge is an initiative of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the RvO (the Netherlands Enterprise Agency). The project team implementing the NBC consists of SustainableMotion, Crosswise Works and the Ghana Netherlands Business and Culture Council.