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, on Wednesday, June 22, 2022 held a one-day entrepreneurship seminar as a means of translating 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’s medical college in Congo Town near Monrovia, the seminar was attended by scores of students of the medical college, and others who applied to be acquire knowledge in entrepreneurship development.
Simmie Nyanfor, Innovation Coordinator for Bridge-U, pointed out that the training was basically geared to helping young Liberians confront challenges faced by the country in improving healthcare delivery and economy.
According to him, its aim is to educate Liberian students to be able to utilize research for the betterment of the society by enhancing economic growth and promoting a resilient healthcare delivery system.
“There are lots of researches that are being done, which are not utilized in Liberia. The idea is to pull those researches off the shelves to improve healthcare and economy, by reducing the burden of diseases,” asserted 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.
Nyanfor noted that the program is structured in a way that four entrepreneurs benefit from US$10,000 annually.
“If you have a research and want to commercialize that research, we recruit 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,” added the Innovation Coordinator at BRIDGE-U.
Caleb Fayiah, a medical student and participant at the seminar, praised the administration of the UL and its partners, BRIDGE-U, for the program, aimed at enlightening students on business-related topics, which are also of great importance to the medical sector.
“This has broadened my mind about 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, I also think entrepreneurship is good because we can also create jobs in the health sector. We cannot wait on government for employment always,” said the student.