Final Event: NBC 2021 Ends With a Bang!

The Expedition Trips of the New Business Challenge 2021 has come to a successful end. Due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID- 19 pandemic, a new structure of the NBC was introduced, the first ever NBC Summer school and Expedition Trips to Ghana and the Netherlands. After an intense month of exploring the Netherlands and Ghana, working in intercultural teams and brainstorming on solutions to real business challenges, the NBC 2021 has come to a successful end.

During the Expedition Trips, participants worked together in mixed teams to develop the best solutions to the business cases of:

1. The Good Roll Africa – The Good Roll Africa was looking for innovative approaches to sell its sustainable toilet rolls to the Ghanaian market
2. Delphy BV – Delphy wanted to discover effective ways to understand the work culture and cooperate optimally with their partners abroad.
3. Ocean Green Beach Villas – Ocean Green sought to boost revenue generation in order to complete the first phase of its project by 2025.
4. Tropical Growers – Tropical Growers wanted to introduce and excite high schools in Ghana about the use of hydroponics in planting.
5. Jolinaiko Eco Tours – Jolinaiko was searching for revenue generating activities to be offered at their Clean and Green Hub whilst contributing to the green environment.

After each company visit, participants cast their votes for the most feasible and impactful concept to be presented during the final event which was held at the Residence of the Netherlands Ambassador to Ghana, all the teams prepared a poster to showcase their innovative ideas.

The Final Event began with a warm welcome by H.E. Jeroen Verheul, the Netherlands Ambassador to Ghana. He emphasized how delighted the Netherlands Embassy is to foster the relations between Ghana and the Netherlands through innovative young minds. He expressed his interest in the program and his desire to see these solutions implemented by the companies. Following on from that, Nana Newman, Co-founder of Tropical Growers, shared his thoughts on the NBC. He was appreciative of the solutions by the participants and was eager to apply them to the business challenge of Tropical Growers.

Cees Dekker, Project Manager for the NBC also expressed his thoughts about the NBC from the perspective organizer’s perspective. NBC Participants, Esther Asamoah and Donné Wagemans also shared some highlights from their NBC experience, the indelible impact the NBC has had and key skills that gained and harnessed during the trips.
Afterwards, participants were presented certificates by H.E Jeroen Verheul and Tjalling Wiarda, General Manager at GNBCC. The event was well attended by GNBCC Members and Clients, Baba Osman Daney (Finance Director at the National Youth Authority) as well as NBC Alumni. Partcipants presenteted their solutions to all attendees and the evening closed with a networking session.

With a bang, the NBC  2021 Trip Ghana came to an end. A big thank you to everyone who made the NBC 2021 possible, especially the project coordinators Cees Dekker from SustainableMotion and Tracy Mensah from GNBCC . A bigger thank you for the coaches: Jemila Abdulai and Diwy Tomassen for their guidance and support during the New Business Challenge. A special thank you to Joana Chemel of the Ghana Design Network, for moderating the event. Kudos to the brilliant participants who made this NBC an unforgettable experience, and last but not least, The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RvO) and The Netherlands Embassy in Accra for their unwavering support of the New Business Challenge.

One down, one more to go. The NBC 2022 is fast approaching. Don’t be left behind keep an eye on our website and Facebook page.