The Problem: The rate of unemployment
Statistics have it that about 20% of people living in Ghana is unemployed (2008 Ghana statistics book) of which even this data is doubted to be 40%; and for the people who are thought to be employed about 35%-45% can’t afford a full square meal in a day. Most people living in Ghana and Africa live from hand to mouth with numbers of the unemployed soaring to gr
eater heights each and every year as more jobless graduates are churned out with high grades. Our solution – Brain-nest
Brain-nest believes in the ability to create opportunities rather than to look for one. Looking for a job with good securities; we say why not own the job and determine the securities for others. At Brain-nest we believe the solutions giving to our everyday problems can be turned into major jobs for people t do. Our solutions are aimed at eradicating poverty from Africa through the creation of jobs and wealth from projects developed by the members of brain-nest. Our Social Value
Day-in day-out people encounter problems of which some are overcome whereas other lookup to others for solutions. Students in various universities are giving problems to solve, others identified by them and the solutions left in books on shelves sitting in a corner in a library for dust to be its spectator. We are going to help members realize their full potential by the projects we assign to groups to research on and develop. A pool of elites would be created which will serve as an avenue for jobs, contracts, solutions and skills selection opportunities at the same time serving as mentors for others. Social responsibility projects such as the Maths4all project, In2science project etc. are tailored at impacting into the elementary and secondary education institutions the ability to see what Ghana has to offer them through entrepreneurship, research and innovation. We strongly believe we can create jobs that will employ not less than 6 million people within five (5) years of operation. SUPPLEMENTAL RESPONSE SECTION FOR CLEARLY ANSWERING FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS
Our innovation? Brain-nest is the clubs we are creating on campuses of universities with an aim of imparting into members entrepreneurship, research and innovations. The innovation is capacity building and construction of resource centres and the creation of a pool of entrepreneurship and innovative elites who will help impact the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship into the youth of Africa. Who gains the most? About 60% of graduates from universities are unemployed whereas with those employed about 50% are not employed in their field of specialization. Through our projects we will be able to absorb the university graduates giving opportunities to polytechnic graduates who always lose when competing with university graduates for jobs meant for them. We will make jobs available for people from graduates to hawkers thereby Africa gaining the most
Who pays? The club section having lots of members will derive some of its funds from;
o dues paid by its members
o projects that are tailored towards our social responsibilities
o specialized fund raising projects
o participation in major philanthropically driven competitions which does not conflict with our aims and objectives
Our success
Our success will be measured by the following
The number of members the program is able to enroll
The number of projects brain-nest is able to bring up and develop
The number of jobs our projects will create
The number of members who will be able to create and maintain their own jobs
How fast we are able to eradicate poverty from a community
How we will do it
How we will achieve this is in steps as illustrated below
[Brain-nest has two main membership forms; the nestlings for undergrads and brainers for the elites and graduated engineers]
First step:
1. Creation of clubs in tertiary institutions
2. Innovating and developing projects
3. Contributing to the brain-nest investment fund which will later be used to fund the projects
4. Creation of a social media where members can share ideas
Second step:
1. Creation of a global office which will foresee the activities of Brain-nest after school making sure all projects are developed to their full potential
2. The building of a major resource and research centre where any student can go to develop his/her project irrespective of the field of specialization. When will it be started? The creation of clubs has thus been started with the first at the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa with a current membership of 150. Clubs will be started in KNUST, Central and Ahyese universities in the 2012/2013 academic and later spread to other universities in Ghana and Africa. The main resource and research centre will be commenced on acquisition of enough funds and intelligence to start such a project with stipulated time of 2015. Project Summary
Brain-Nest aims at addressing the issues of poverty in Africa by impacting the spirit of Entrepreneurship and technological innovation into the youth whiles developing some of the projects that are innovated
Detailed Project Description
We believe the major problems facing Africa is from the fact that we lack entrepreneurs who will put their skills into creating solutions for their continent. We believe the ability to create jobs and maintain them depends on the mindset of the individual. Here is the case we live in a society where everyone's aim is to finish school with flying colors and get a good job which is not there. This has rather increased the rate of unemployed graduates especially in Ghana. A similar case is a friend of mine whom I completed Networking engineering with. Once on my way to a bank I saw this my classmate as a security man on post. I was really touched by what I saw that day, for a network engineer to be on a post as a security man? That is horrible. . This should not be the case, as Africa is one of the continents with the most abundant natural resources which can be used to create wealth and jobs for people to do. As such our primary aim is impact the idea of entrepreneurship and innovation into the youths. We can achieve this by supporting students who have promising projects to develop, create a platform where people can develop their life changing projects, and provide expertise where it is required to help people with innovations to develop them. We hope to build incubation centres, to provide both nurturing and mentorship, through the creation of a pool of experienced elites who will impact the idea of entrepreneurship into the youth and help solve the problems they bring up. We wish to provide internships both home and abroad to the students we work with. One institution which we took into consideration is the University of Mines and Technology which is situated in a major mining centre in Ghana - Tarkwa. This is a university where almost all courses offered are engineering related courses and thereby starting such a project in this environment will be a good idea. Because it is one of the major mining universities in Africa, the number of students from other African countries is large thereby posing a good environment to start such a project. Once a student approaches me with his project of producing diesel oil from a plant, but when this is done the oil later coagulates and sleeps. Upon creation of this club there are various life changing projects from students which are coming up of which I think if taking into consideration and made a reality can create jobs for more than 6 million people.
