Students in the various tertiary institutions in the country have been counselled to make entrepreneurship a priority as Ghana is gradually becoming a service economy.
According to the proponent, entrepreneurship has the potential to drastically reduce the unemployment among the over 100,000 graduates that are churned out by the country’s tertiary instuitions on yearly basis, therefore students must give priority to the area.
Dr Daniel Agbeko, Chief Executive Officer of Quente Africa Consult Limited gave the advice recently while addressing a group of students at an entrepreneurship pitching competition held at the University of Ghana, Accra.
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The competition was held to identify and award grants to student entrepreneurs who presented best proposals for consideration. Out of the many, three students took home coveted prizes which is expected to be presented to them when school reopens.
The first prize winner;UG Plastics; would be given a grant of GHC 10,000, Deedew, the second Prize winner would be given a grant of GHC 7,500, while the third prize winner, Brickgates would take home GHC 5,000.
Dr Agbeko indicated that the richest people in Ghana currently are mostly entrepreneurs and therefore encouraged the students to embrace it.
He said in 2011 there was a research and it was found that 48 percent of graduates do not get employment after graduation, meaning that when 100 people complete the university, 48 of them do not get jobs.
He added, “In 2016 the survey was repeated and it was realized that the figure had shot up to 60 percent. It means that when 100 people complete university, 60 of them don’t get jobs. We are now in 2018 and if this survey is to be repeated, I tell you that the result will be disastrous. So I’m happy you are here that you want to start your own business and I will assure you that this is the right platform and it is the right thing to do.”
According to him the problems the country is facing currently has to do with the curriculum the universities are using in training the students. He said the curriculum are theory based rather than practical and that has made it impossible for most graduates to get jobs after school.
Our universities are not developing curriculum to meet the changing times, there is the need to develop curriculum to meet the demand out there,”
He said entrepreneurship is one’s ability to be able to identify a problem in society and devising one’s own means to solve them.
On his part, the ultimate winner of the prize Mr Julius –Jayson A. Botchway was delighted to have emerged the overall winner and pledged to use the grant to grow his business as envisioned. He thanked the organizers for their support and kind gesture.
Mohammed Suleman
