We are AgriLab, a student team from the University of Ghana with members Isaac K. Y. Aboah, Henry Duah, Daniel K. Afriyie and Nana Akua Afriyie Busia.
Last year, out of our dedication to change the world, we came together to solve Africa’s biggest challenge of youth unemployment by responding to the call of the world’s largest student entreprenership competition, the Hult Prize.
The Hult Prize sets a yearly challenge in partnership with the United Nations Office of Partnership and the support of President Bill Clinton that aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals, through which students join in on the challenge by presenting their idea in the hopes to ultimately win US $1 million in start-up funding to launch a sustainable social venture.
After preliminary rounds of competition against more than 200,000 applicants, and over 500 work hours, our team, AgriLab qualified to one of 27 regional finals across the world in Kuala Lumpur. We bootstrapped from friends and family, saved our personal money and with support from our university travelled to Malaysia, our first traveling experience.
At the Kuala Lumpur Regional Finals which took place from 29th to 30th March, in between our mid- semester exams, we skipped school to compete against 61 other teams from more than 20 countries and we were eventually crowned winners after several rounds of pitches.
As winners of the Regional Finals, our team, AgriLab, will move into the Hult Prize Accelerator for 6 weeks in London where we would receive mentorship, advisory and strategic planning from some of the world’s most influential business leaders as we create prototypes and set-up to launch our new social business which will create employment for the youth and marginalised group, reduce food insecurity and lastly cut food exportation in our country
After the accelerator, we get to pitch at the Global UN Finals at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, where we would hopefully be crowned winners and awarded the USD1 million prize by President Bill Clinton himself if we come out as the best team.
Our story as a team has been one of relentlessness, passion and tenacity forged from our individual experiences that inspires our mission. We have made it this far as a result of a community of people, friends and strangers alike who have inspired us, mentored or sponsored something we needed.
We are even more encouraged now to give in our best to win the ultimate prize for Ghana and the rest of the African continent.
Kindly support our fund that would be used to purchase flight tickets to London and New York. We are eternally grateful for being part of the success story we are soon to tell. God Bless you.
