Accra, June 18, GNA – As part of efforts to support Government’s job creation objective, especially in the agricultural sector, the Fidelity Bank, in partnership with Innohub Foundation, has launched the second edition of the Fidelity GreenTech Innovation Challenge (GTIC).

The initiative is designed to support idea-stage GreenTech businesses that address pressing challenges in Ghana’s agricultural value chain.

This year’s challenge will award grant funding totalling over GH¢900,000 to 16 outstanding teams, enabling them to transform their concepts into viable, sustainable solutions.

“At Fidelity Bank, we believe that transformative change begins with bold ideas,” said Nana Yaa Afriyie Ofori-Koree, Head of Partnerships, Sustainability, and CSR at Fidelity Bank.

“This year, by prioritising support for early-stage businesses, we aim to identify and empower innovative entrepreneurs whose solutions can make a significant impact on Ghana’s agricultural sector,” she added.

In a continued commitment to fostering agricultural innovation, Fidelity Bank will provide over GHS 1,000,000 in direct grant funding and support to 16 selected idea-stage enterprises.

Each of the selected winners will receive GH¢50,000, with the top 3 businesses receiving GH¢100,000, GH¢80,000 and GH¢70,000 respectively, the organisers said.

The funding is intended to help innovators refine their innovations, validate market demand, and build traction toward market entry, it said.

Whereas the The Idea Stage will build on learnings from the inaugural 2024 Challenge, which spanned three tiers, GTIC 2025 concentrates on the early-stage businesses (Ideation Tier).

This approach is designed to identify disruptive concepts, accelerate early validation, and build collaborative teams

“By zeroing in on early-stage solutions, we deepen our commitment to nurturing the next generation of GreenTech innovators,” said Nelson Amo, Executive Director at Innohub.

“Innohub will work closely with all 16 selected teams to refine their business models, ensure product-market fit, and prepare them for future growth. We’re excited to see how these businesses will evolve into transformative ventures for Ghana’s agricultural sector,” he added.

The initiative would make significant contributions towards addressing Ghana’s unemployment challenge. The 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) indicates that more than 1.55 million people or 13.4 per cent of Ghana’s economically active population are out of work — as compared to the of 5.3 per cent jobless rate recorded in the 2010 census.

The World Bank estimates that more than 110,000 of Ghanaian youth graduate from universities every year but more than 12 per cent of the youth are unemployed and more than four times that number are underemployed.

The Bank has projected that Ghana would have to create at least 300,000 new jobs annually to absorb the increasing number of unemployed people given the country’s growing youth population.

It is against this backdrop of the urgent need for job creation that the Fidelity GreenTech Innovation Challenge (GTIC) aims to make an impact.

GNA