The Deputy Managing Director of UBA Ghana, Mr Usman Isiaka, has urged the government to create an enabling environment for entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.
An enabling environment, he said, would help entrepreneurs nurture their ideas properly and operate in an atmosphere that would enable their businesses to thrive.
Speaking during an interaction with a delegation of Ghanaian entrepreneurs who took part in the 2015 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) in Nigeria, he said, “the government must create an enabling environment for entrepreneurship to thrive. There should be good infrastructure and power must also be stable to power the operations of entrepreneurs.”
Thirty-six entrepreneurs from Ghana were selected to take part in the TEEP boot camp in Nigeria and they would each receive US$5,000 as seed capital for their operations from the Tony Elumelu Foundation based in Nigeria. The Ghanaian entrepreneurs were part of the 1,000 chosen from 51 African countries.
The entrepreneurs have subsequently formed the TEEP Ghana chapter and met with the management of UBA Ghana to formally introduce themselves and present their ideas.
Mr Isiaka used the occasion to urge the entrepreneurs to be visionary people, that is, they should see things ahead and work towards achieving them.
“You also need to develop the can-do-spirit of Mr Tony Elumelu. If you can conceive the idea and think about it, then you can actualise it.
You should always have the never-say-die spirit to spur you on to excel even when you face challenges,” he said.
He added, “every time you fall, take a lesson from it and let it catapult you to rise again and excel. You must also have a high sense of low humility and don’t allow your success to overtake you.”
TEEP Ghana
The President of TEEP Ghana Chapter, Mrs Sheila Osei Boakye, told the Daily Graphic that being part of the Tony Elumelu bootcamp had afforded them the opportunity to network with other entrepreneurs.
Mrs Osei Boakye, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Literacy4life, said the aim of TEEP Ghana was to build a network of Ghanaian entrepreneurs who will take part in TEEP in subsequent years in order to create jobs.
“We are building this network in order to create about 100,000 jobs in Ghana. We will also guide the entrepreneurs that will take part in the TEEP program next year so gradually we can develop a crop of Ghanaian entrepreneurs who will contribute to the growth of the economy through job creation,” she stated.