Mantey wins pitch contest

Donald Ato Dapatem Aug - 19 - 2023 , 13:59

A 27-year-old former student of University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) at Tarkwa, who has designed an app that serves as a supplementary teaching and learning platform for engineering students, has emerged the winner of this year’s Presidential Pitch.

Caleb Edem Mantey, a Bachelor degree holder in Geomatic Engineering, received the prize of GH¢150,000, while President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on whose lap the programme sits, also donated GH¢50,000 from his personal resources.

The Presidential Pitch is organised by National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), under the Office of the President.

The fourth edition of the Presidential Pitch attracted entries from thousands of Ghanaians, and brought out the ingenuity and entrepreneurial acumen of some Ghanaian youth that has the propensity to become a global bluechip for companies. The innovations were displayed yesterday before President Akufo-Addo in Accra.

The matrix for assessing the businesses include innovation, how feasible is the implementation of the project, how it can be scaled up, the employment opportunities it can create and how impactful it will be.

Each of the 10 finalists was given the opportunity to present their products and innovations after which they answered questions from a panel of judges.

PetSim

PetSim, the app that won the first position, is an interactive and immersive application of a petroleum drilling rig simulator that teaches postgraduate and undergraduate engineering students practical operations of a drilling rig.

PetSim has three modules, a rig operations module, a rig component module and a quiz section.

In the first module of PetSim, users can learn about the various rig operations i.e. rotation, hoisting, circulating, power and well control to know about the general rig operations.

The second module allows users to learn details of the various components of a rig individually.

Finally, the quiz section allows for personal assessment and examination.

Final

At the final pitching at Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel yesterday, 10 out of 30 contestants presented their ideas and products before four internationally renowned business executives, who served as judges.

Looking elated and impressed with the works of the participants, President Akufo-Addo, who sat through the entire process which lasted for over two hours, presented 27-year-old Mantey with the award.

The work is estimated to generate over 5,000 jobs in five years in the upstream oil and gas sector.

Those between the 11th and 30th positions received between GH¢30,000 and GH¢50,000, while the first to 10th had between GH¢70,000 and GH¢150,000.

The second position went to Bismark Etornam Mensah, a young entrepreneur, who uses fish for food seasoning without any additives, also known as ‘momone’ cube.

The others also pitched various products such as plastic waste management and internet applications.

For instance, Ike Agyei Mensah designed ‘Deaf Can Talk’, which uses mobile phone to translate sign language to audio and vice versa for easy interaction with hearing-impaired persons.

Former

President Akufo-Addo said through the first three pitches, 702 direct and thousands of indirect jobs could be created by the young women with majority of these jobs being established in rural communities.

He recounted how the first Pitch winner, Aisha Vanessa Liman, a 19-year-old agro-processing entrepreneur, the second and the third winners as well as some of the participants were doing well by expanding their businesses and employing more young people.

The President singled out the Chief Executive Officer of Pizzaman Chickenman, Christian Boakye Yiadom, who placed 10th in season two who had gone ahead to establish branches throughout the country, leveraging the GH¢25,000 prize he won.

President Akufo-Addo added that entrepreneurship was a vital component of economic growth and development and had been embraced globally as an important driver of economic transformation.

He expressed the confidence that the fastest way to deal with the challenges confronting the economy and reducing the rate of unemployment was the fusion of tech entrepreneurship and business.

President Akufo-Addo said before taking office, the country had not done well in incubating ideas and developing them into potential businesses.

$10 Million

To end that trend, he took the decision to set up the NEIP in 2017 with an initial startup capital of $10 million to provide support for young entrepreneurs.

President Akufo-Addo said the NEIP had a special purpose vehicle to champion the agenda of job creation, innovation and business development in the country’s entrepreneurship ecosystem by creating initiatives that benefited the youth directly.

Various sectors

The Chief Executive of NEIP, Kofi Ofosu Nkansah, said the programme received application from various sectors, such as financial technology (Fintech) and technology, manufacturing and processing, food and beverage, agri-business, tourism and creative sector and technical, vocational education and training (TVET).

He urged the finalists not to have doubts about what they could do but look up to Fintech giants such as ZeePay, Express pay, Hubtel, which all faced difficulties on their way up the ladder.

Mr Nkansah mentioned some of the accomplished businessmen and women, who had been mentoring the pitchers, including the Founder and CEO of ZeePay, Andrew Tekyi Appiah, the Akyempemhene of the Juaben Traditional Area, the 2022 Overall National Best Farmer, Oheneba Gyan Siriboe, and the Chief Executive of the Jospong Group of Companies, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong.

He assured the 30 participants that even after the competition, the pitchers would receive support from NEIP.