The hopes of many of the youth for job opportunities were rekindled having been inundated with thought-provoking tutorials from solid and enterprising motivational speakers – Charles Sam, Emmanuel Dei Tumi and Adu Sarkodee – who took turns to charge and reawaken their optimism for a brighter future.
Conspicuously displayed on the beaming faces of the audience was the sense of hope, belonging and capability to change Ketu South and mother Ghana for the better.
Held at the Assemblies of God Auditorium at Aflao, the event which was under the theme Transforming the Youth of Ketu and Raising Future Giants for Ghana was organized by the Friends of Fifi Kwetey, deputy Finance Minister.
The speakers held the interest of the youths in the about four-hour ideas trading.
Emmanuel Dei Tumi: Anger changes situation
Mr Emmanuel Dei Tumi, founder, Foundation for Future Leaders International, charged the youth to purge, from their system, inferiority complex and to believe in themselves that they can make it in life.
His presentation was carefully couched “to share how to cultivate the right attitude to remain hopeful and motivated in a puzzling corporate world and become successful”.
“Any situation you are not angry at, you cannot change it,” Mr Dei Tumi posited, indicating that we live in an imperfect world with many shortfalls, and those discrepancies ought to ginger people to find solutions to them.
He expounded the argument further, elucidating that sometimes God creates uncomfortable situations around us, but those impediments should be seen as a “stepping stone” to move to the next stage and turn things around in our lives.
Mr Dei Tumi reminded the youth not to assign the duty of job creation to the government, albeit, it is the government’s responsibility to create the enabling environment for businesses to thrive. He pointed out that the numerous frustrated youth in the country were as a result of blanket hopes they had in the government to provide them with jobs.
He said persistent blaming of others for our own misfortunes and predicaments would compound our condition, if the youth consign themselves to their shells, without believing in themselves that they can make it in life.
Charles Sam
Mr Charles Sam of Golden Future Promotions lamented that the system of education in the country has been structured in a way that a large chunk of graduates come out of school with the mindset of seeking for jobs – which are sometimes unavailable.
Worse still, he said, there is a “disconnect” between schools and industry, explaining that the education system churns out people who are without the needed skills industries seek.
He called for a change in the status quo where graduates hunt for jobs after school; to an era of creating jobs themselves. The best way of achieving that, he noted, is to educate and empower the youth.
Value Addition
Per a cursory look, it might seem all is lost for the youth, but Charles Sam was particular about how the youth can turn things around and become agents of job creation by simply adding value to whatever they do. Value Addition, he counseled, should be the trump card of the youth seeking to make a mark in a competitive environment.
Repeatedly, he psyched the youth to believe that everything they dream of could be materialized, however, it would take self-denial, commitment and dedication to get there. The youth were, therefore, cautioned against sacrificing their future by indulging in social vices such as drugs, robbery, truancy, underscoring, “the best way to predict the future is to create it”. He pointed out: “A man’s greatest asset is in the mind, but the greatest asset in the 21st century is the young mind.”
He charged the elderly not to see the youth as adversaries but partners in development. He said some adults unnecessarily harbour fears of losing their jobs to the youth, and would therefore do everything possible to stifle and scupper their vision. He maintained that it was therefore incumbent on leaders to groom their subordinates to take over from them in case of their demise. He was quick to note that most often, an industry usually dies with the owner because nobody has been trained to take up the management or leadership mantle.
Far from being a prophet of doom, he was emphatic that Ghana will live in the past and lag behind its neigbour countries if people despise and discourage the youth from being adventurous and ambitious.
Nevertheless, he pointed out, the youth must also be prepared and daring to occupy leadership positions when the opportunity, which likely comes just once, crosses their path.
Old faces; old ideas
Charles Sam, having had the benefit of travelling extensively, could not fathom why at a time when countries are tapping into the exuberance of the youth to fast-track their development agendas, Ghana’s is sadly on the contrary.
“In the 21st century, the rule of engagement is different from the past, therefore if those who belong to the past continue to hold the fort, then we will be behind.” He therefore urged a crusade for young faces to front Ghana’s march to development. His campaign was borne out of the fact that the current crop of youth are more in tune with the world “scientifically, objectively, logically and futuristically”.
He appealed to Members of Parliament, District Chief Executives and industry owners to identify and mentor selected youth in their locality. The youth must also reorganize themselves and portray themselves as worthy persons who can contribute something to the society when given the chance.
Emmanuel Adu-Sarkodee
Mr Emmanuel Adu-Sarkodee, CEO of CDH Financial Holdings Ltd, asserted that one cannot create things in the physical world, if they are not first conceived or created in the spirit (visualised).
He noted that vision is a very important key when starting a business of any kind. This vision, he elucidated, would spur you to take certain decisions and make certain commitments.
Coming from a business background, Mr Adu-Sarkodeee urged the youth to exorcise the fear of the reality that they will often have to compete with successful businesses. He pointed out that most of the big businesses so cherished today started from an humble beginning, with some even operating from garages and bedrooms.
Write down plans
Mr Adu-Sarkodee advised the youth to always have their business plan on paper, and warned them against merely conceiving their ideas in the head without putting them into writing – there is a high risk of losing the ideas.
He also entreated the youth to share their plans with trusted people so that they can understand and support or back them up. He however warned them to be careful in order not to expose their ideas to those who will scupper them.
Sharing proceeds
Mr Adu Sarkodee urged them to regularly do their own research to know their vicinity very well in order to identify what are available and what are lacking. The result, he said, should inform them on the kind of business they embark on.
He said whenever there is a partnership in any business they undertake, they should make it a point to even decide from the onset, as part of the initial agreement or plan, how to share proceeds from the business. This, he said, is necessary because business usually breeds greed.
To create a good business, he asked the youth to ensure that integrity, truthfulness and honesty become part and parcel of them.
Fifi Kwetey
Mr Fiavi Fifi Kwetey, Deputy Minister of Finance, said the seminar should be seen as a launch pad to move from the slow pace in which Ketu South is developing, adding that the people in the area are now breaking into a new day where with concerted efforts, things are bound to change.
“With God we can” as his tagline, and attracting an equally responsive “yes we can” from patrons, Mr Kwetey, a native of the area, said he threw his weight behind the seminar as part of his many commitments to develop and champion the youth in a journey of total transformation of Ketu South, Volta Region, Ghana and the World in General.
He told the youth that they can make it to the highest level, and should not succumb to pressures to abandon their ambitions.
He announced a $25,000 Youth Entrepreneurship Fund to support the youth of Ketu South who come up with brilliant ideas and urged the people to invest for the future and do away with the status quo where people only think about survival for today but not generations yet unborn.
During question time, it was vividly clear, as expressed by the hundreds of youth who thronged the venue, that they wished such opportunities had opened to them much earlier. For the adults, it was a case of better late than never as they beamed with smiles and convinced themselves a new day had dawned.