Accra, June 12, GNA - Bleoo Junior Achievement Company of Accra Academy, has emerged the National Junior Achievement (JA) Company competition champions for 2011. Ten teams that participated in the competition include Giant Link (Ghana Secondary Technical School), Bleoo (Accra Academy), 4 Syte Impressio= n (Ghana Senior High School), Sikafie (St Peter's Senior High School), Palm= bit 1910 (Adisadel College), Amojac (Aggrey Memorial Senior High School), Goldrush (Keta Senior High and Technical School), Persco Achievers (Peki Senior High School) and The Saint (St John's School) The goal of the JA Student Company of the Year competition was to balance the business achievements of each team as a whole and that of members' personal development.

For this year's competition, JA Student Companies appeared before a panel of independent judges, who determined a company's performance against the competition criteria, which was then compared with other JA Companies a= t each stage of the competition process. For a team to win this award it was not sufficient to just run a financially successful JA Company or to have created an exciting product or service - JA Company members had to demonstrate that they understood how an= d why the company performed as it did.

The judges selected from Barclays Bank Ghana senior staff, looked for evidence of innovation and the application of new ideas in all aspects of running the company. The competition formed part of JA's worldwide annual celebration of th= e achievements of membership of the various JA Companies in schools. Mr Jefferson W. Agbai, Executive Director of JA Ghana, said the competition also formed part of a broader initiative of Junior Achievement to bring entrepreneurship to the door step of young people through hands-on learning to encourage students to inject seriousness in their operations. He said this initiative was needed in this current global economic crisis to rebuild communities and provide the entrepreneurial wealth mechanisms for a stable society.

Mr Agbai said the winner would represent JA Ghana at this year's Afr= ica Regional JA Company of the year Competition in Accra from October 18-22. It will attract about 20 Teams. Mr Marfo Mickson Somuah, Program Assistant, Junior Achievement Ghana said the performance of the teams showed an improvement over the maiden edition, adding that plans were underway to enroll more schools on the programme. Mr Kwabena Gameli Kugblenu, Program Communications Officer of the Junior Achievement Ghana, expressed appreciation to Coca Cola Bottling Company, Coca Cola Equatorial Africa Limited, Nestl=E9 Ghana Limited and Barclays Bank Ghana Limited for their contribution and support for the programme.

He appealed to other stakeholders to partner Junior Achievement Ghana to continue to ignite the interest of young people in experiencing the opportunities and realities of the 21st-century global marketplace and contribute to the health of the world economy. Madam Esther Amba Numaba Cobbah, Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Communication, said the youth were leaders of today and not tomorrow as was often said and described the competition as a clear proof of what the youth were capable of doing.

She said the programme would enable young people to use their entrepreneurial capabilities to develop businesses that would soon have international recognition. She encouraged the youth to build their entrepreneurial skills to contribute to the development of the nation.