A group of Business School students at the University of Professional Studies, Accra, have raised GHS 200,000 to invest in sustainable businesses — and they want universities across Africa to copy the model.
Seven students from UPSA's Business School have done something that most professional fund managers haven't: launched a fully operational investment vehicle focused exclusively on Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria — and they did it before any of them turned 25.
The GreenNest Student Fund raised GHS 200,000 from fellow students, faculty, and alumni through a three-month crowdfunding campaign, and has already deployed capital into two Ghanaian startups: a solar-powered cold storage company serving fish traders in Tema and a recycled plastics furniture manufacturer in Kumasi.
"We wanted to show that impact investing isn't just for institutional money," says fund co-founder Priscilla Oti-Mensah, 23. "Young people care about where their money goes. We just needed a structure."
The fund is advised by a board that includes a partner at a Lagos-based VC firm and a World Bank economist, both of whom joined pro bono after seeing the students' pitch deck circulate on LinkedIn.
UPSA has since formally recognised GreenNest as an official university body and is exploring making a course module based on the fund's structure. The team has been invited to present their model at a pan-African business schools conference in Kigali later this year.
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Abena Mensah
Abena is a final-year student at the University of Ghana who covers campus culture, student politics, and the youth experience across Ghana's universities.