Total Petroleum Ghana PLC has announced three winners for the 3rd Edition of the TotalEnergies Startupper challenge.

After months of preparation and search for the next winner of the 3rd Edition of the TotalEnergies Startupper challenge, three out of fifteen finalists emerged winners of each category of the challenge.

The third edition of the challenge, which started with 1,229 applications from 32 participating countries, was eventually brought down to 15 candidates, of which 3 emerged winners of the three categories on Friday.

The criteria, which included the Best Business Creation project, Best start-up under 3 years of existence and Best Female Entrepreneur, were coined out of Total Petroleum Ghana PLC’s desire to support young entrepreneurs in Africa.

The winners of the challenge include Ariana Appiagyei Nsiah Nimo; winner of the Best Business Creation Project, Mathias Charles Yabe; winner of the Best Startup Under 3 years category and Anaporka Adazabra; winner of the Best Female Entrepreneur category of the challenge.

The winners were each awarded an amount of GH¢70,000 which comes with extensive media publicity and one-year personalised coaching from business experts to help grow their individual businesses.

Speaking at the Startupper of the year by TotalEnergies to award winners of the challenge at Kempinski Gold Coast in Accra, the Deputy Minister of Energy, Andrew Egyapa Mercer intimated that entrepreneurship was one of the backbones of the formal sector because graduates from various tertiary institutions depend on them.

Also speaking at the program, the Managing Director of Total Petroleum Ghana PLC, Olufemi Babajide indicated that the Startupper of the year by TotalEnergies challenge was an initiative by the TotalEnergies Group to contribute to the development of the local economic environment as well as show the company’s commitment to local entrepreneurship.

He further indicated that the company was supporting entrepreneurship in various ways.

“Other programmes we have institutionalized include the Total Young Dealer Scheme, a system that allows Staff of Total Service Stations to progress through the ranks from pump attendants to dealer position. This station staff has the privilege of being trained and groomed by the company to enable them to get to this stage,” he said.

The august occasion was graced by dignitaries such as the Deputy Minister of Energy, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, Chief Executive Officer of Association of Oil Marketing Companies, Kwaku Agyemang Duah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Yaw Amoateng Afriyie, among others.