The Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Services Team (TTIPs), one of seven teams at the Office of Research, Innovation and Development (ORID) from the University of Ghana, has held a one-day workshop on ‘Building Innovative Businesses’ for students, university staff and entrepreneurs.
The interactive workshop was done in collaboration with the Embassy of Israel in a bid to build stronger universities in the country. The workshop was part of activities to mark Digital Week celebrations.
The workshop brought together seasoned business gurus from both Israel and Ghana, who shared their experiences and challenges in building their businesses; therefore putting the participants on a higher pedestal, as they tend to be innovative.
Director of ORID, Professor Obeng Adjei, in an interview with the B&FT said there is a need for entrepreneurs to build innovative businesses in this age of technology.
“With the university’s activities, the Israeli embassy – through what we call the MASHAV programme – is supporting us.
“The support covers both resource persons and financial resources to enable the organisation of logistics for the event. We are privileged to have many entrepreneurs, well-known business people, with the experience from Israel supporting,” he said.
Prof. Obeng Adjei said the workshop is part of their core mandate, which is to train and build the capacity of students, staff and external stakeholders.
“Our mission is to build the core of trained people, generate ideas, train people and professionals to be able to work in society. So, our external stakeholder is our immediate society, communities, government, industry and the like. As part of adding to the academic programme, it is also to give them training and skills to be able to build businesses,” he said.
Meanwhile, some participants at the event expressed their appreciation to ORID and MASHAV and their partners for organising the workshop. They prayed for more of such activities to help lots of businesses change their old ways of doing business and switch to being innovative.
The activity was also sponsored by the Israeli embassy which is part of the tripartite committee: Israel embassy under the MASHAV programme, Deutsche Gesellschaft Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and government of Ghana through Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation.
ORID is responsible for promoting, facilitating research, coordinating research at the University of Ghana and its strategic plan development, which includes developing business plans and engagements with industry.
