Ex-convict wins grand prize of Gh₵5000 at the King Cold entrepreneurial challenge

Rosetta Quarshie, a social entrepreneur and an ex-convict won the first edition of the just ended King Cold Entrepreneurial Challenge. She received the winning prize of GH₵5,000 to support her bead-making business. 

 Early this year, My Story Magazine, an entrepreneurial resource platform in collaboration with King Cold Properties, a real estate agency based in Ghana set up The King Cold Entrepreneurial Challenge to support small business owners and start-ups with funding and other resources amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Entries were received from 30 business owners and social entrepreneurs after which seven were shortlisted. Out of the seven shortlisted participants, three were selected for the grand finale. The three contestants were Petra Odubayo, Abraham Adjekum, and Rosetta Quarshie,

 The three finalists made presentations on their skincare, creative designing and bead making businesses. Rosetta emerged winner after a series of deliberations by a 4-member panel who assessed contestants based on the viability of their business and its social impact.

 Rosetta’s story is that of grit and second chances. Having been incarcerated for murder when she was just about 18 years old, Rosetta served a 5-year jail term after an altercation with another hawker led to his death.

While in Sekondi Females Prison, Rosetta was determined to learn a trade and took advantage of skills training opportunities provided to inmates by various organisations and philanthropists.

It was in one of such training sessions that Rosetta met Mrs. Gloria Adubea Aboagye of G-Modest Enterprise who visited the prison frequently to provide skills training in bead making and accessories to inmates. Noticing Rosetta’s hardworking and enterprising spirit, Gloria decided to take her under her wing.

 A mother of one, Rosetta lives in Takoradi. She has been working with Mrs. Adubea Aboagye to support herself and family since her release. When Gloria came across the challenge, she encouraged Rosetta to join the competition to enable her gain financial support in order to set up and expand her business.

Speaking with the organizers of the King Cold Challenge, Rosetta was grateful for the gesture and noted that it will to help her grow her business and also provide support through skills training programs for ex-convicts and inmates to help reintegrate them into society.       

The King Cold Entrepreneurial Challenge is an annual program that was set up to helps start-ups and social enterprises scale their businesses. Speaking with the Publisher for MSM, Nana Akwasi Bonsu, he noted that this partnership with Richard Essilfie, CEO of King Cold Properties will go a long way to provide support and investment opportunities to small businesses. He was optimistic that the competition will grow to become a national platform for entrepreneurs.