The Class Media Group (CMG), a Ghanaian conglomerate which operates Class91.3FM, Accra100.5FM, No.1 105.3FM, Kumasi 104.1FM, Adehyee99.1FM, Ho FM, CTV, Tamale FM, Takoradi FM and ClassFMonline.com has launched a corporate social responsibility project to help artisans (seamstresses/tailors and hairdressers) to establish their own businesses.

Dubbed the ‘Founder’s Empowerment Project’, the philanthropic gesture is designed to gift startup equipment and tools to needy-but-talented artisans, including apprentices, who lack the wherewithal to marshal initial capital on their entrepreneurial journey.

Each business unit of CMG media will give away 25 sewing machines and 25 hairdryers to deserving artisans to help them start a business and consequently reduce the rate of unemployment in the country while boosting the economy as a whole.

The artisans are required to forward to the respective stations, a one-minute video of their craftmanship stating why they deserve to win a sewing machine or a hairdryer.

The video must be sent to the following WhatsApp contacts:

Class 91.3FM – 0241 641 692

Accra 100.5FM – 0506 537 565

No.1 105.3FM – 0558 066 283

CTV – 0506 537 557

The project will start from CMG’s media outlets in Greater Accra and then move to Kumasi 104.1FM and Adehyee99.1FM in the Ashanti Region; Ho 92.5FM in the Volta Region; Tamale FM in Northern Region and Takoradi FM in the Western Region in the coming weeks.

Applicants are required to state their names, age, location and personal contact numbers. Those under apprenticeship are also requested to add the contact of their supervisor.

Interested applicants who are not literate who cannot use the internet can call into the respective stations to tell their story. Such persons and all others seeking assistance with the entry processes or to make further inquiries can contact CMG on 030 22 08 070.

The applicants will be screened, shortlisted and the deserving beneficiaries selected by a team of judges who will put premium on the talent and circumstances of each participant.

Entries begin on 9 September 2019 and will be closed on 23 September 2019.

Subsequently, the selection process will be undertaken and a big event will be held in Accra for the presentation of the equipment to the talented-but-needy beneficiaries.  

Commenting on the initiative, the Group CEO of CMG, Mr Kojo Ackaah-Kwarteng, told Benjamin Akakpo on Class FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Friday, 13 September 2019 that the programme will bring relief to the beneficiaries and their families, who may have otherwise been consigned to abject poverty.

He explained that the gesture is to fulfil a need and solve societal problems and cautioned people who are not in need to avoid sending entries. He also cautioned people who will benefit from the programme to desist in selling the equipment handed over to them.

The Founder’s Empowerment Project forms part of the numerous charity programmes Of CMG which include the annual Celebrity Easter Funfair and donations to orphans in Greater Accra; yearly donations to mothers, a GHS50,000 support to single mothers and the construction of an Out-Patient Department (OPD) block at a cost of GHS857,000 for the Child Emergency Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (K’Bu) in Accra by the CMG founder.