The Agritech Challenge Classic, which was introduced in 2016, aimed at empowering young people to see agriculture from a different perspective and take advantage of the opportunities available in the value chain.

Mr Benjamin Gyan-Kesse, Executive Director of KIC, who stated this, said the Challenge gave tertiary students and graduates who were interested in establishing their businesses the opportunity to pitch their business ideas to a panel of ideation team after being trained for seven months.

He was speaking at the opening of the 2024 KIC Agritech Challenge Classic finals, which is being organized in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, in Kumasi.

Over 100 tertiary level students from the 16 regions of Ghana are participating in the final contest, which will last for three days.

About 15 to 20 teams would be selected for the next level and awarded a sum of about US$2,000 each, to delve deeper into their pitched business ideas.

Mr. Gyan-Kesse said the participants had already been trained in core areas such as business strategy, product development, marketing, market research tours, personal discovery, and team effectiveness, among others.

The training was to build-up their capabilities in pitching their business ideas as well as expose them to the agricultural value chain and networking opportunities to establish and grow viable solutions to key agricultural challenges in Ghana.

He said 64 teams made it through the zonal stage from the Northern, Southern and Middle Zones to the final with their amazing business idea pitches.

Mr Gyan-Kesse applauded the 64 teams who made it to the finals and encouraged them not to lose hope in themselves even when they were not selected for the next stage, saying, "Life is a marathon and not a sprint."

The team of ideation panelists, during the business pitches, advised the various teams to include the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as one of their research sources due to the Council's research credibility in the field of agriculture.