Total Petroleum Ghana Limited has launched an entrepreneurship programme dubbed “Startupper of the Year” to solicit innovative ideas from budding entrepreneurs and start-up businesses in the country.

The contest will identify and reward the best projects in enterprise creation or development less than two-years old and it is expected to motivate and support young entrepreneurs as a way of fast-tracking economic growth.

The campaign which is being held in 34 African countries simultaneously will collate viable business ideas from participants based on the criteria of originality, development potential as well as the capacity of the innovation to improve the conditions of the population.

Participants will be winnowed down to the final three who will receive mentorship from seasoned entrepreneurs in addition to cash prizes ranging from GH¢80,000, GH¢48,000 and GH¢32,000 respectively.

Project Team Leader, Abdul Rahim Sadiq, speaking at the launch, said the competition was a corporate social initiative of Total Ghana to encourage and support entrepreneurship in the country.

He said: “This is a campaign to contribute to the development of the African continent through support for innovative and competitive start-ups with high employment potential with the viability to offer local options to substitute imports.

“We are looking for profitable and sustainable development prospects with provision for added value.”

Managing Director of Total Ghana, Olivier Van Parys, said the contest reaffirms the company’s commitment to champion innovations that better the lots of members of communities in which it operates.

“We have taken social intervention higher; this contest is our way of supporting young entrepreneurs with financial and mentorship support which will directly push entrepreneurship to grow the Ghanaian economy and Africa as a whole,” he said.