The Network of Entrepreneurs and Young Leaders (NEYL Foundation) has launched the Ghana innovations and creativity contest to unearth the creative abilities and innovations in the Ghanaian youth.

The annual idea-based contest will span agriculture innovation, transport, health, education, political communication and other social and national interests.

Executive Director of the Network, Francis Godwill Eshun, is hopeful the contest will provide an avenue to solving the country’s challenges.

“Going forward the GICC is going to be a derivation of practical solutions to socio economic problems. This nation has suffered enough with the theories and it’s about time we change the practical train,” he noted.

According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Ghana has a young age structure, with approximately 57% of the population under the age of 25.

Vice Chancellor of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Prof. Rita Dickson believes the country can be self-reliant by empowering the youth through creativity and innovation.

"The movement of Ghana to the age of self-reliance is dependent on the Ghanaian child. It is therefore imperative and important to empower the children of this nation in order to ensure a prosperous future for the nation.

''The path to self-reliance depends upon the creativity and innovativeness of the nation that is why it is vital to instill creativity and innovation in the lives of the Ghanaian children since they are the future of this nation,” she emphasized.

Speaking on behalf of the KNUST Pro Vice-Chancellor, assistant registrar, Theodora Oduro, lauded the efforts of the NGO to empower the youth.

“I share in the dreams of the Network of Entrepreneurs and Young Leaders for taking it upon themselves to instill creativity, innovation and confidence within the Ghanaian Child.

“The Ghana beyond aid is a national transformation agenda which speaks about building a transformed, wiser, wealthy, inclusive, sustainable, empowered and resilient Ghana,” she noted.