A Call Well Made

Professor Samuel Nii Odai, the Pro Vice-Chancellor, has called on businesses to consider the

PROFESSOR SAMUEL NII ODAI

implications of their activities on the environment. He made this call at the launch of this year’s Trade and Technology Fair (TRATECH) organised by the Students Representative Council (SRC).

The fair has the theme “People, Planet and Profit: Embracing Sustainability and Innovation for Business Growth”.
Prof. Nii Odai explained that profit was good but businesses should not only consider profit to the neglect of the environment. This was because a negative attitude towards the environment would affect generations. He made a passionate appeal to businesses to adopt innovative strategies to save the environment.

“As a science and technology university, equipping students with the requisite entrepreneurial skills, it is our responsibility to ensure that future generations do not suffer due to our actions today,” he stated. He therefore commended the students for choosing the theme.

Joseph Baffour, Chairman of the TRATECH Committee, observed that this year’s fair sought to provide employment and capacity-building to exhibitors with good and amazing business ideas. Exhibitors would compete under the SRC Business Development Challenge. Viable businesses that emerge winners would be brought into partnership with the Kumasi Business Incubator (KBI) and the Centre for Business Development.

Items on exhibition include electronics, clothing, drugs, cosmetics, footwear, ceramics, paintings, sculpture, decorative accessories, food, beverages and drinks. There were exhibitions from multimedia, travel and tourism companies and other service providers in the Kumasi Business Incubator (KBI).

Duke Sasu, the SRC President, believes that students’ ideas should be supported and therefore fourteen (14) start-up businesses and ideas of students would be supported with funds.
Apart from the usual college and departmental exhibitions, a significant number of exhibitors were students and alumni entrepreneurs. Wise Technologies, an electronic company owned and funded by some students, exhibited universal modems and power banks. The power banks are power devices for charging smartphones, tablets, cameras, Go Pro, MP3 players among others. The power bank would help students to charge their mobile devices in this time of the power crisis.
Mtrotech is also a student-owned business. They exhibited cane furniture and handmade customized t-shirts made from sea shells, clay, wood and other natural materials.

Some undergraduate students from the KNUST School of Business (KSB) also exhibited Fresh Drinking Yoghurt. The drink known as Lese Fresh Drinking Yoghurt comes in strawberry, mango and orange flavours.  At the KSB stand were assorted bead products such as necklaces, bracelets, earrings, among others under the label Queens Pearl.

Story Credit: www.knust.edu.gh