Mr. Assifuah Hasford Kojo Ainoo, of the Department of Biotechnology and a winner of the UDS Vice-Chancellor's Business Innovation Awards in 2020, has, together with his team, won the final event of the African German Entrepreneurship Academy (AGEA)Business Idea Competition 2022. The competition was held on 20th September 2022, as part of the 30th Anniversary Conference of the SEPT Competence Center, Leipzig University. The event featured dozens of participants in-person and online.

AGEA organises the annual Business Idea Competition to reach out, identify and support innovative and entrepreneurial solutions for Africa by African students, entrepreneurs and researchers within its network and beyond. The focus of the competition this year is on generating entrepreneurial and commercially viable solutions stemming from research at African universities that can develop into spin-off start-ups/companies.

This year, 94 applications were received from over 20 African universities and 34 of the ideas qualified based on the evaluation criteria to move to the next stage of the competition.

The final ideas were presented to the audience through promotional idea videos and a Q&A session with the final jury members and the audience. Based on the videos and the answers to the questions asked, the jury scored and ranked the ideas. The audience also voted for the best idea to win the Audience Award.

At the end of the competition, Mr. Assifuah of the University for Development Studies came first with his Business Idea on WAH Insecticide.

Below are the top four contestants

• First Jury Prize: WAH Insecticide (University of Development Studies, Ghana) 
• Second Jury Prize: Bacterial Wilt Bactericide (Pan African University Institute of Basic Sciences, Technology, and Innovation, PAUSTI, Kenya)
• Third Jury Prize: Kuzimba Services (Makerere University, Uganda)
• Audience Prize: Kuzimba Services (Makerere University, Uganda)

The first, second, and third winners of the jury prizes receive a cash reward of €1000, €500, and €300, respectively, while the winner of the audience prize gets €500.

Having won the competition, Mr. Assifuah has become eligible to participate in idea and business development initiatives such as the AGEA Start-up Class in 2023 to ensure that the ideas become viable products and services for various markets.

Assifuah Hasford Kojo Ainoo and his team members sought to formulate biodegradable fumigants from plant materials as insecticides against mosquitoes and fall armyworms (Spodoptera frugiperda). This is a great intervention for Ghana and all tropical nations that are mosquito-prone regions. This is a two-way innovation to make tremendous transformations in the Agriculture and Health Sectors of economies.

(University Relations)