University Of Ghana Students On Exchange Programme In Japan To Participate In Hult Prize Regionals Summit

Two students from University of Ghana’s School of Agriculture currently undertaking a one year exchange programme at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), Japan have been selected to participate in Hult Prize Regionals Summit to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Team Stercus, represented by Ms. Esther Afi Dzigbordi Tamakloe, Team Leader (Ghana); Mr. Prince Boateng Amoah (Ghana); Mr. Souliya Thidphaxay (Laos) and Ms. Ruka Masano (Japan) emerged as one of the top three out of twenty teams after a successful on-campus session at TUAT. The team stands a chance to proceed to the Hult Prize Accelerator in Boston, US and a final pitch for a million dollar prize at United Nations in San Francisco after the Regionals Summit.

Hult Prize is a competition which allows students around the world an opportunity to showcase their innovative ideas, learn from their peers and be inspired by a generation of young people who are committed to changing the world through business. With the theme for this year’s Hult Prize competition dubbed ‘Building start-ups that have positive impact with every dollar earned’ the students decided to come up with “Stercus”, a start-up which aims at revolutionizing organic crop production and making organic cropping easier with locally available materials and technology in Ghana.

The team leader, Ms. Esther Tamakloe, expressed excitement for been part of the competition and progressing to that feat. She revealed ‘the journey to impact the world as young entrepreneurs has just began and we are not doing this for ourselves but for our countries and the world at large”. She was hopeful that their business ideas would make a great impact on the environment and crop production and feed millions in Ghana and all over the world.

The team expressed their gratitude to the Campus Director, Kesevan Veloo and other mentors for their selfless dedication and assistance toward the group. Team Stercus is currently working towards testing their prototype in Ghana ahead of the Regionals Summit which is scheduled for March this year.