The ninth conference on Universities, Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development in Africa has opened at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) with an entrepreneurship fair and exhibition.

The two-day conference, organized within the BET Ghana Project and funded by DAAD/BMZ, is expected to increase knowledge transfer between the private sector and academia, particularly, regarding entrepreneurship in Africa and the support of African and German SMEs in Africa.

It is being held on the theme, "Universities, Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development in Africa".

Individuals, groups and institutions have displayed their innovations and inventions at the Fair to also encourage fruitful interactions between exhibitors and potential investors and customers.

Addressing participants at the opening, Ms. Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), noted that universities were importantly becoming centres for grooming change agents due to advancement in technology.

The universities must position themselves to make entrepreneurship core of most of their activities to create an entrepreneurial culture as well as churn out requisite skills for industry development.

She underscored the importance of Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country and said about 90 percent of the Ghanaian and many other economies around the World, were being driven by MSMEs.

The CEO, therefore stressed the need to strengthen MSMEs such that they would continue to move the Ghanaian economy into a better direction.

Ms Yankey-Ayeh spoke about the newly adopted MSME policy, which underpinned the foundation for the development of the MSMEs in Ghana, adding that its successful implementation, would go a long way to improve academia and industry linkages.

She said her outfit would continue to partner universities and enterprises to build on their successes and transform what they were doing in academia into practical solutions for Ghanaians, stressing that it was important to continue to foster the development of young entrepreneurs and students.

"The GEA in collaboration with some universities and tertiary institutions is building strong incubation and acceleration programmes to support MSMEs and pledge to continue to do that," she added.

The Vice Chancellor of UCC, Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong, touted the University's enviable niche it had couched for itself over the years, that had supported the development of its students and staff with skills and competencies, needed for the nation's development.

The entrepreneurship fair, he said, resonated with his vision to position the UCC as an entrepreneurial university within the sub region and beyond.

He said UCC had a long-standing relationship with the Bonn-Rhein-Sieng University of Applied Sciences through which various partnership and programmes had been of mutual benefit for students and staff of the two universities.

He mentioned its employability workshops, of which more than 160 students had been equipped with various soft skills and more than 60 teaching staff also benefiting from inter disciplinary research workshops.

The Vice Chancellor urged participants of the Conference to build more partnerships and collaboration in order to develop sustainable enterprises that would support the country's economic growth and development.

The Provost of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies of UCC, Prof. Francis Eric Amuquandoh, noted that developing a critical mass of successful entrepreneurs was essential to developing a prosperous nation with sustainable development.

He said UCC through the College, established the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprises Development to train and equip students and young entrepreneurs with the needed skills and financial support to make them self-employed, thereby reducing graduate unemployment.

On display at the Fair, were traditional drinks, soups, African wear, pomade, leather works and others.