Council of State Member coaches students of University of Ghana
A member of the Council of State, Mr Francis Seth Nyonyo, has advised students of the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana to embrace entrepreneurial skills as the best way to address the unemployment challenges in the country.
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“The intention is to share ideas with the students and to encourage them to develop the habit of entrepreneurship after school,” he said.
The lecture was organised by the Political Science Department of the university to inspire students of the department to consider starting their own businesses after school instead of looking for someone to employ them.
Mr Nyonyo who is a former student of the department is a successful entrepreneur in the oil and gas industry and owns a number of businesses both home and abroad.
He explained that he considered it a responsibility to give back to his alma mater what he acquired while in school and how far what he learnt at the department had taken him.
Private sector is the key
He said the number of graduates turned out every year by the universities in the country was a clear indication that the public sector could not absorb them and that was why he was championing the spirit of entrepreneurship among the students so that they would come out of school as employers.
Mr Nyonyo stated that the fact remained that the private sector was the key to the unemployment situation in the country and there was the need to create the congenial environment for the private sector to thrive.
He commended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his vision to give the private sector the needed push.
He said the private sector needed a friendly business environment to play its role as truly the engine of growth, noting that the unemployment situation in the country could only be addressed if the private sector was allowed to function.
Frustrating environment
Mr Nyonyo acknowledged the frustrations young people faced in accessing assistance to establish their own businesses.
“The structures are not transparent and the policy formulators do not understand,” he said and added that it was the major factor affecting entrepreneurship in the country.
He wondered how the youth could be motivated to venture into the private sector where there was so much frustration in the system and stressed that there was the need to soften the environment to make it attractive to the youth.
My Nonyo also told the students that with the right attitude, honesty and determination they could become responsible adults in future.
Nyonyo Foundation
Touching on the Nyonyo Foundation, Mr Nyonyo explained that it was established to support brilliant, needy students to pursue education at the tertiary level.
He announced that it had a scholarship for political science students in the University of Ghana.
He said the foundation now had up to three scholarships for the undergraduate level and one for the MPhil level.
On requirements, Mr Nyonyo explained that apart from the fact that the beneficiary should be a needy student, the critical requirement was that applicants should be ‘Grade ‘A’ students.
The Head of the Political Department, Dr Bossman Asare, urged the students to take advantage of the lecture to learn something that could help them grow into useful adults in the future.
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