Five hundred students from nine Senior High Schools (SHS) at the weekend graduated from entrepreneurial training by Junior Achievement Ghana (JAG), a non-profit organisation in partnership with Nokia, under the Enterprise without Borders (EWB) programme.

The schools included St. Augustine’s College, Opoku Ware School, Accra Academy, Ghana Secondary Technical School, Holy Trinity Cathedral Senior High School, Mfantsipim School, Mfantsiman Girls School, Adisadel College and Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT.

Mr Jefferson Agbai, Executive Director of JAG, said the core purpose of JAG was to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in the global economy and that this was achieved through entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness.

The EWB was a corporate social responsibility of Nokia Ghana which teaches students the value and importance of international trade.

The programme is designed to give students running mini-companies the opportunity to create cross border international partnerships and gain practical skills necessary for business.

Mr Agbai noted that JAG, since its inception in Ghana in 2009, has helped to prepare young people for the future by showing them how to generate wealth and manage it, create jobs and apply entrepreneurial skills at the workplace.

He said large numbers of Ghanaians were financially insecure in that most students graduated from the universities with no capital base to start life.

Mr Agbai said for that reason the programme would promote the spirit of enterprise among educators and students and promote attitudes for personal success, life-long learning and employable skills.

Mr Osagie Ogunbor, Communications Manager for Nokia West Africa, said the EBW programme allowed students to start business and take part in cross border business via the internet adding that Ghana and Kenya were the only two African countries currently taking part in the program.

Mr Ogunbor said the programme would soon be available as a mobile application that would allow more African students to take part and that the initiative was opened to students aged between 15 and 18 years.

He reiterated the benefits of the programme to  encourage high school students to pursue entrepreneurship by offering them support such as mentoring and opportunity to network with like-minded colleagues from across the globe.

Mr Ogunbor said Nokia had given the students a platform through its online business entrepreneur, where students post their company profiles and also viewed companies of their colleagues overseas.

He said the purpose was for students to form partnerships, help each other sell their goods and services in different markets and exchange ideas on entrepreneurship.

Mr Ogunbor noted that under the online programme, students would be taught skills in calculating productivity, reading financial statement research, interpreting data, teamwork and technology.

Read in  : www.ghananewsagency.org