Group Nduom, a multi company conglomerate, has given 20 scholarship packages to students across the country as part of its corporate social responsibility to respond to the needs of needy and brilliant students.
The students, which comprised 10 boys and 10 girls were selected based on their special needs and they would be supported financially through to the university level working with career counselors for employment opportunities.
The Group has plans of expanding the scholarship scheme to 20 students every year, because it believed that education was critical to the development of an individual and the nation as well.
Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, Chairman of the Group, said this at the weekend at the 5th commencement dinner dance ceremony of the Standard Seed Transformation Programme in Accra.
The Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (Stanford Seed) is a Stanford Graduate School of Business-led initiative aimed at ending the cycle of poverty in developing economies.
The programme involves 25 participating companies from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Cote d’voire trained in challenges and opportunities of doing business in developing economies, as well as designed modules to inspire participants to become globally engaged citizens and leaders.
Dr Ndoum said the Group has 50 companies across Africa spanning from financial institutions, insurance, media, real estate development and hospitality industry; build on values of faith, discipline, determination and service.
He said the Group believed in integrated development and focused on building from a small enterprise to big and has established 207 retail banking institutions across the country, hoping to reach a target of 300 districts.
Dr Ndoum urged entrepreneurs to see failure as one of the possible results in business and be ready to face it since failure gives experience and enable individual to chart the best possible approach in solving problems.
“A successful businessman will not relent in his failure but will continue to find innovative ways of overcoming any obstacles that comes in the course of the business engagement,” he added.
He urged prospective business enterprises to start something small to develop into big since most businesses started from a humble beginning, before expanding the frontier of the enterprise, adding that this could be possible through determination and perseverance.
Reverend Emmanuel Kitcher, Regional Manager, Seed Programme, said the participants were trained in modules such as design thinking and innovation, financial performance management, and business ethics.
He said the programme drives immediate impact through leadership training, general management sessions, networking, and coaching for founders or senior leaders of existing enterprises in Africa.
Rev Kitcher said the programme through its research, helps to advance fundamental knowledge about entrepreneurship and firm growth in developing economies.
He stressed that greater understanding of the factors that drive or hinder entrepreneurship and innovation in challenging environments will allow for better and more effective interventions in the future.
Rev Kitcher urged entrepreneurs not to worry about bottlenecks in business, but more importantly see every problem as an opportunity to be creative about in developing solutions to the problems.
