The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) secured their slots after winning their respective contests in the quarter final stage.

The University for Development Studies (UDS), which earlier lost in their quarter final contest against the UCC, had the opportunity to come back into the semi-finals after becoming the losing school with the highest score.

The contest promises to be an exciting one as the qualified schools will battle it out to secure their slots for the final stage of the TBSC 2020.

The TBSC, which is an initiative of the Graphic Business, aimed at developing the cognitive growth of business students to build successful business careers in the future, is being held on the theme: “Developing Business Minds — The Hot Seat.”

Heated contest

The quarter finals contest took off on Monday with a heated contest between the KNUST and the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS).

In what appeared to be a ‘repeat or revenge’ contest, both teams battled it out keenly to ensure that the best side progressed to the semi-finals stage, with the ultimate aim of winning the bragging rights for 2020.

For the KNUST, it was a case of revenge, as it set out to recover from a one point loss to the UGBS in the maiden edition of the TBSC last year.
UGBS, on the other hand, came in with a mindset to repeat its win over KNUST as was the case last year.

The first round, which tested the knowledge of the contestants on general business principles, was keenly contested. The UGBS scored 16 while the KNUST followed closely with 15 points.

The second round focused on calculations where the KNUST bounced back scoring 18 points with UGBS scoring 13 points.

The third round, which focused on the problem of the day, changed the face of the competition giving the UGBS an advantage over KNUST. After solving the problem of the day worth 10 marks, KNUST managed to score only 3.5 while UGBS scored 8.5.

The UGBS maintained the lead in the fourth round of the contest scoring 18 while KNUST scored 14.

The fifth round, however changed the face of the contest for KNUST as they managed to answer three of the riddles made available to both teams. That enabled them to pull an additional 15 points to push the total score to 70.5 points at the end of the contest.

The UGBS didn’t score any marks in the fifth round, ending the contest with 50.5 points.

At this point, fans of KNUST started yelling and chanting, “the revenge is complete,” signalling that their mission had been accomplished.

Second contest

The defending champions, UCC, in the second contest of the day managed to beat the UDS to secure its place in the semi-finals.

The UCC lived up to its title of being the winners of the maiden edition of the TBSC, beating the UDS in three out of the five rounds of the contest.

At the end of the contest, UCC scored 72.33 points while UDS pulled 59 points.

For UDS, their losing position did not deter them from attempting the riddles in the fifth round, as they needed to build up their scores to secure the highest points as the losing school to get an opportunity to still qualify for the semi-finals.

Third contest

The final contest in the quarter final was between the UEW and the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).

The UEW, clad in their school cloth, put up an impressive performance during the second segment of the competition. By the end of round two, UEW overtook UPSA with a difference of 12 points, earning 16 points while the latter earned four points.

At the end of the contest, the UEW emerged winners with 59 points while UPSA exited with 28 points.

Sponsors

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) are providing the technical support for the contest.

The corporate sponsors include Accra Brewery Ltd (ABL), PricewaterhouseCoopers (Pwc), Glico Life Insurance, Twellium Industrial Company Limited and CompuGhana.

The media partners are YFM and Media General, operators of TV3.