The official inauguration of CESED in September 2014 was a consolidation of the entrepreneurship education initiative that began at UCC in 1993. Under the UNDP-funded Umbrella Programme for Employment Generation (1990-1995), the University secured a grant of $250,000 to develop and deliver a master of philosophy programme for the training of entrepreneurship educators towards the integration of self-employment training into the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) curriculum in Ghana. The Department of Vocational and Technical Education was created from the UNDP funding to host the programme. Some of the 19 graduates of the programme went on to teach Entrepreneurship in TVET institutions, including polytechnics and the now College of Technology Education, of the University of Education, Winneba. Dr. Henry Fram Akplu, who was then senior Lecturer at UCC, and Professor S. K. Adjepong, former Vice-Chancellor of UCC, supported the establishment of a Centre of Entrepreneurship but due to funding and infrastructural constraints, at the time, the idea was shelved.
However, in the late 1990s the School of Business, in line with the strategic vision of UCC, introduced an undergraduate Entrepreneurship course for all business students. In 2008, the School introduced an MBA/MCom programme in response to the need for qualified practitioners in the field of Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise Development, in Ghana. In 2014, University management approved a proposal for the establishment of CESED under the Deanship of Professor Edward Marfo-Yiadom with support from Professor Rosemond Boohene, Professor Francis Boachie-Mensah and Dr. Henry Fram Akplu. Between September, 2014 and 31st July, 2016, CESED operated under the auspices of the Dean of the School of Business until 1st August, 2016, when a substantive Head was appointed by the Vice-Chancellor of the University to manage the Centre.
