The maiden edition of the Ghana Inter-University Liberty and Economics Competition has been organised by the Africa Centre for Entrepreneurship and Youth Empowerment (ACEYE).

The competition which was held in Accra on Sunday, October 30 2022, was the climax of the ACEYE’s Scholars Club training sessions which seek to imbibe in the young scholars the ideals of free market philosophy and economics and ensure they grow to take the leadership mantle of the country.

Held under the theme: ‘From Rhetorics to Change Agents: A New Deal for Africa’s Youth’, the event featured guest speakers such as Dr Joseph Darmoe, the Programmes Director at Konrad-Adenauer- Stiftung, a German poly think tank and Mr Samuel Amanor, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BlueSpace Technologies.

The competition was contested between the various chapters of the ACEYE Scholars Club formed on four university campuses in Ghana, namely; the University of Ghana (UG), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Mines & Technology (UMaT) and the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ).

Among a number of activities undertaken, the scholars presented a pitch on how Ghana can practically solve some of the pressing economic challenges such as youth unemployment, the menace of galamsey and how to shift from the current theoretical learning to practical learning in the current educational system.

According to the CEO of ACEYE, Emmanuel Acquah, the competition was to enable young scholars to leverage the skills and knowledge gained through rigorous training sessions to solve some of the complex economic challenges the country is grappling with.

“We decided to have the maiden edition of the Ghana Inter-University Liberty and Economics Competition because, first, we want to gauge the understanding of young people when it comes to free-market philosophy and also economics. As you know, the whole semester, we selected tertiary institutions that went through training where we imbibed in them the concept of a free market or classical liberalism,” he explained.

He further indicated, “as part of the project, we decided to leverage on the skills acquired [and] knowledge gained to solve critical socio-economic problems. By so doing, we decided to bring all of them together to compete as to which of [the] ideas is more viable in helping to make this country a prosperous one.”

Some of the scholars also touted the positive impacts made by the ACEYE Scholars Club’s training sessions on their understanding of the free market economic philosophy.

According to Amissah Frimpomaa Priscilla from the GIJ Chapter, the knowledge gained from the scholars club has convinced her that the free market philosophy, when properly practised in Ghana, will be the game changer in terms of economic growth and development.

“With this scholars club, I have really learnt a lot. It has really helped me to explore and research more and also to apply whatever I’m learning in school in addition to what I’m taught in the club. I believe that when we allow the private sector to thrive, with little or no government intervention, it will really help. It will actually solve most of our problems,” the ACEYE scholar explained