Accra Academy Wins Junior Achievement Award

Accra, July 19, GNA - Accra Academy Senior High School's Apex JA Company, on Sunday won the overall best company award in the Junior Achievement (JA) Ghana competition. The school, which also took away the Barclays award for the most creative and innovative product or service, would represent Ghana at the African competition in Kenya later this year. Winners of the Kenyan competition would proceed to the US to compete for the global award. The Ghanaian competition, which was on the theme: "Turning Youth Potential into Enterprise," was aimed at bringing together high school students to give them the opportunity to celebrate their achievement in entrepreneurship. The JA Company programme is an experiential learning course, which takes place among high school students through the reality of running their own businesses. The programme exposes them to the critical realities of entrepreneurship. Eighty students selected from more than 12 secondary schools in Ghana, were challenged to establish teams to produce a product or package a service. The realities they confront include the challenges of designing a product, managing finances for optimal profit, reducing overhead and handling of human resource effectively. Other schools won the Fidelity Bank award for the most outstanding Chief Executive Officer; the Nestle award went to the company that earned the highest profit, the Coca Cola award for the company with the best display and the July award for the company, which best exemplified integrity in their business. Ms Esther Nunaba Cobbah, Chairperson of JA Ghana, who presented the highest award to Accra Academy congratulated Apex Company for their exemplary performance. She encouraged the youth to confront challenges that come their way in any given situation and conquer them, adding: "There is always the temptation to make excuses and accept mediocrity, but never settle for mediocrity, strive to be the standard and lift the bar. Wherever you find yourself let it be said of you that you made something out of nothing. Ms Cobbah urged the students to strive for greater laurels. She commended JA for enhancing youth capabilities through the competition, which was based on three pillars of work readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Mr Jefferson Worlanyo Agbasi, Executive Director of Junior Achievement Ghana said he was very pleased with the success of the programme. JA is the world's largest organisation dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy through dedicated volunteer network. It has 137 individual area operations, which covers more than four million students in the US with an additional five million students, who are served by operators in 123 other countries worldwide. JA Ghana started operating in the country for the past three years. Since its inception the organisation had forged relationships with educators and private sector leaders across the nation.