Two groups of students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), have received €10,000 for innovative business plans.

This was at the third edition of the “Green Entrepreneurship Awards” ceremony held in Kumasi.

The awards – an initiative of the German Corporation (GTZ), seeks to encourage university students to come up with brilliant ideas to solve environment-related challenges, while creating jobs for themselves and others.

The first group – comprising of Michael Ampomah, Jeffery Appiagyei and Jerome Lavie, have set up a business – “EvaTECH Ecooler Ventures” that deals in fruit and vegetable storage.

“Nonafate Company Limited” jointly operated by Somba Yabido, Salifu Adams and Amartey Kissieh, has been dealing in environmentally-friendly and efficient irrigation pumps.

Each group was presented with €5,000 to grow their businesses to create wealth and jobs as they helped to safeguard the environment.

Professor Mark Adom-Asamoah, Provost of the College of Engineering, KNUST, said 23 student teams submitted business plans for vetting by experts in this year’s event.

The experts were drawn from the KNUST, University of Cape Coast (UCC) and Bonn-Rein-Sieg University, Germany.

Prof. Adom-Asamoah indicated that entrepreneurship was the driver for prosperity in any developing society.

He therefore applauded the North Rhein-Westphalia State Government in Germany and the GIZ for strong support they were giving to Ghanaian universities to develop the entrepreneurial skills of students.

The Provost encouraged developing countries to forge partnerships to speed up industrialization and overcome the dependence on aid.

Prof. Imoro Braimah, Provost of the KNUST College of Humanities and Social Sciences, said the days when university students were trained for academic purposes were over.

It was important, he said, to focus on entrepreneurial training for job creation.

Dr. Emmanuel W. Ramde, Director of the Brew-Hammond Energy Centre, announced that the team of experts and supervisors would be mentoring the award-winners to sustain their business plans.

This, he said, was going to be done in partnership with the KNUST Centre for Business Development and other technical units within the University.