Entrepreneurs Africa, a movement committed to creating a thriving environment for entrepreneurship, has instituted the Next Young Entrepreneur series throughout Africa, with Ghana as its start point.

Ghana’s Next Young Entrepreneur (GNYE) is a 13 week assessment process designed to recruit, evaluate and provide start-up support and seed capital for the most promising young entrepreneur, between the ages of 18 and 35.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Entrepreneurs Africa signed by its Country Director, Mr Robert Klah, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Wednesday.

The statement said the purpose of GNYE was to recruit the brightest business ideas based on feasibility, marketability, profitability, employability and sustainability, and give them the incentives to flourish, thereby addressing the problem of unemployment while inspiring entrepreneurship.

The statement said prospective participants were required to submit a one-page executive summary of their business idea (online only via ghana@entrepreneursafrica.org or through the website www.entrepreneursafrica.org) for review by the selection committee.

“While the deadline for submission is the 30th of June, applicants are advised not to wait to the last minute to tender in their business ideas,” it added.

It said 30 business ideas would be shortlisted, and the owners of these ideas would be contacted to defend their business ideas in an interview session with GNYE board to justify their inclusion, where the best 15 candidates would be selected to participate in a weekly task sessions, which would be aired on television.

The statement said the weekly tasks had been carefully selected to cover all areas of world class companies including business law, strategy development, recruitment, sales, financial management, and research to prepare the entrepreneur to go beyond mushroom orientation.

It said each week the worse performing candidate would be eliminated until there was a final three, who would compete at the grand finale by preparing business plans and presenting them to the GNYE board before a live audience for scoring.

It said as part of the awards, all 15 participants would be given the investment opportunity awards, where their business ideas would be pitched to an organised group of investors.

It said, “Secondly, the top five participants will be flown to the African Recovery conference in Kenya, where they will be introduced to global investors and business partners across Africa.”

The statement said, “The ultimate winner takes home seed capital and start-support worth over GH¢50,000 including one year access to board of directors, one year office space with stationery, first client, wardrobe, start-up branding services, website development, certificate, and plaque.

It said, “GNYE is supported by the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG), The African Network of Entrepreneurs (TANOE), African Recovery, SliceBiz, and Deegib Multimedia and powered by iQmenn.”