The University of Liberia College of Health Sciences (ULCHS), in partnership with the USAID-funded Bringing Research to Impact for Development and Global Engagement – Utilization (BRIDGE–U Liberia) project has held a one-day entrepreneurship seminar here to translate research into viable product that improves healthcare delivery, local economy and strengthen the country’s fragile health system.
Held at the Campus of the UL Medical College in Congo Town, the seminar was attended Wednesday, June 22, 2022 by scores of students of the Medical Collages and others who applied to acquire knowledge in entrepreneurship development.
Innovation Coordinator for Bridge-U, Mr. Simmie Nyanfor, pointed out that the training basically geared to help young Liberians to confront challenges faced by the country in improving healthcare delivery and the economy.
He said the aim is to educate Liberian students to be able to utilize research for the betterment of the society by enhancing economic growth and promoting resilient healthcare delivery system.
“There are lots of researches that are being done which are not utilized in Liberia.
The idea is, pull those researches off the shelves to improve healthcare and economy, by reducing the burden of diseases,” said Mr. Nyanfor.
“The cardinal objective is to use research ideas, translate them into viable products that improve our healthcare delivery, our local economy and strengthen our health system,” he explained.
He noted that the program is structured in a way that four entrepreneurs benefit US$10,000 annually.
“If you have a research and want to commercialize that research, we recruit [you]into our incubation program where you go through mentoring and at the end of the day, when your project is promising, you receive funding for that. That is to encourage more people into research. We are building this project that it will be more sustainable,” he added.
Caleb Fayiah, a medical student and participant at the seminar, praised the administration of the UL and its partners, BRIDGE-U for the program that aims to enlighten students on business related topics, which are also of great importance to the medical sector.
“This has broadened my mind on how to start up a business and the risk associated. It is better that we learn these things so that we will be able to avoid those risks that make businesses fail. As a medical student at the A.M. Dogloiti, also think entrepreneurship is good because we can also create jobs in the health sector. We cannot wait on the government for employment always,” said Student Fayiah. Editing by Jonathan Browne
