Duapa Werkspace has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Takoradi Technical University (TTU) to establish an Innovation Hub that will help students develop ideas to build viable businesses.
“The Department of Center of Languages and Liberal Studies has given us the mandate to operate the Hub; the hub known as ‘CELLIBS Innovation Hub’ an initiative of Duapa Werkspace,” Erasmus Mensah Ackoon, CEO of Duapa Werkspace explained.
He explained that under the MoU, “TTU will give us the space and then Duapa Werkspace will finance the set up in terms of providing working space, event center for workshop, seminars, entrepreneurial studies for students among others.
We will kick off in January next year; we will run it, operate it and hand over to TTU in the next five years. Also, we are expecting to train more than 1,000 students within the period and for every semester there will be various programmes and activities,” he said.
The hub, he said is going to prepare the students, give them the business developmental and entrepreneurial skills and the drive to establish businesses. According to him, “what we are going to do is mostly practical’s and we are also going to assign them with mentorship and coaching.”
“We are going to support them financially through funding opportunities, prepare them to meet investors, build business modules and plans, have their market research and customer surveys done,” he added.
“On the Minimum Viable Products (MVP), they will need to go to the market, test it and be able to see whether the solution will work. Through that we will provide them with incubation opportunities where they are going to be incubated and groom for a period of time and then scale up their ventures,” he pointed out.
Rev. Prof. John Frank Eshun, Vice Chancellor of TTU said the University is poised to become the center of excellence. “We believe the private sector is the engine of growth of the economy and this hub, will help create employment opportunities for our youth,” he said.
