How African Youths Can Grow Business -Ghanaian President

President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, has urged African leaders to create an enabling environment for enterprises to flourish across the continent.
Mahama spoke at the maiden convocation of the University of Offa, Kwara State.

He stressed the need for African leaders to provide stable institutions, quality infrastructure, relevant education, access to finance, predictable regulation, and economies capable of generating decent work for young people.

“Ideas need capital. Businesses need affordable finance. Young innovators need patient capital. Enterprises need efficient payment systems and market access. It will be paradoxical for us to tell young Africans to become entrepreneurs but deny them access to finance, infrastructure and opportunity. We would have offered them an aspiration without the tools to realise it.

“The responsibility, therefore, belongs to all of us. Young people must bring their ideas, energy and courage. Governments, financial institutions, universities and the private sector must help create the enabling environment in which those ideas can survive, grow and scale.”

“Governments have a responsibility to create an enabling environment in which enterprises can flourish. Governments must provide stable institutions, quality infrastructure, relevant education, access to finance, predictable regulation, and economies capable of generating decent work for young people.

“We in government must accept that responsibility. At the same time, your generation must recognise that the most secure preparation for an uncertain future is the ability to keep learning, adapting and creating value,” he said.

Mahama charged the young graduates to keep learning, adapting, and creating value to prepare for “an uncertain future”.

Speaking on the theme, From Certificate to Enterprise: Africa’s graduates as architects of the continent’s economic future, Mahama, who was represented by Ghana’s High Commissioner-designate to Nigeria, Baba Sadiq Abdulai Abu, told the graduates that their degree is a license to continue learning, especially in the era of Artificial Intelligence.

“Allow me to leave you with three charges: First, learn continuously – Your degree is a license to continue learning, not a certificate announcing that learning has ended. The skills that will define the next decade are changing even as we speak. Artificial Intelligence, data science, digital commerce and new technologies will continue to reshape professions.

“Do not fear technology. Learn to use it responsibly and intelligently. The future will favour those who combine human judgement, creativity and integrity with the intelligent use of technology.

“Second, build with integrity – Enterprise without ethics cannot produce sustainable prosperity. Africa does not merely need intelligent people. It needs trustworthy people, those who honour their agreements. Treat those who work with you with dignity and integrity. Pay what you owe. Protect your customers. Respect the environment. Whatever success you achieve, let it be success you can defend with a clear conscience.

“Third, think beyond borders. Think Africa – Your market is not only Offa. It is not only Kwara State. It is not only Nigeria. Your market is Africa and beyond. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) gives your generation an opportunity to build a more integrated African market where businesses can trade, invest, and grow across borders. Build products that can travel. Develop ideas that can scale up and form partnerships across borders. The African enterprise of the future will succeed if it is built on collaboration with Nigerians, Ghanaians, Kenyans, Rwandans, Senegalese, and many others.

Also speaking, the vice chancellor of the university, Professor Kazeem Alagbe Gbolagade, said that the University produced eight First Class graduates among a total of 140 first degree graduates.