Addressing students of the Ghana Baptist University College (GBUC) in Kumasi during a “Leadership Summit”, as part of their 8th SRC week celebration, he urged the youth of today to be bold in putting their dreams and aspirations into practice and make them a reality.

The deputy minister told the youth that in spite of the interruptions and challenges they would encounter as they pursued their ambitions, they must be focused and determined in order to secure their future.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah reiterated that what most budding entrepreneurs lacked was their ability to eschew pride and allow themselves to be mentored, “especially when they start making some strides but we must remember that ‘it is in the multitude of counsellors that you find wisdom.’”

“Listen, pay attention to what other people think about your goals and also make room for criticisms,” he cautioned.

He assured the youth that the government was creating the enabling environment for businesses and innovations to thrive, and that potential growth all over the world was spearheaded by the private sector.

Problem-solving

The 2016 Presidential Candidate of the Independent People’s Party (IPP), Mr Kofi Akpaloo, told the students that the easiest way to becoming successful in today’s world was through solving problems.

According to him, there are numerous difficulties in the country and the world at large, which need to be addressed and that all the youth need is to examine the difficulties and provide the means to address them.

“Once you identify a problem and help solve it, you are in business”, he said.

Mr Akpaloo told the students that setting up a business was not all about capital, but rather having a solid idea, because “once you bring out an idea which is demand-driven, business- minded people will buy into it and make it a reality.”

Capacity-building

The President of the GBUC, Reverend Dr Yaw Adu Gyamfi, said the idea of organising numerous entrepreneurship summits for students was to help build their capacity and also create new platforms to help exhibit and promote various talents of students.

He advised students to go beyond using their mobile phones for just making and receiving calls but to rather explore the Internet and read wide in order to prepare adequately to solve modern day problems.