The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Yofi Grant has cautioned that the growing support for young businesses and entrepreneurs across the country will not yield the expected results if the entrepreneurs themselves fail to institute key accountability measures.
He made the remarks on the sidelines of the 3rd Edition of the Young Entrepreneurs Forum held here in Accra.
The Akufo-Addo government has over the past two and a half years introduced a number of initiatives such as the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP) along with others like the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme to provide employment as well as support and promote entrepreneurship and business development especially among the youth.
But according to the CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC), Yofi Grant, young entrepreneurs will end up squandering the resources made available to them from such programs if they fail to focus more on discipline in the execution of their ideas rather than pinning their success on the availability of funds.
“A lot of the new businesses require support. But as they say, globally, out of every 10 businesses that come out only 3 survive. For a lot of the businesses at this forum they need to understand that the biggest stumbling block they face is not capital or money. It could be their own discipline and or focus.”
The 3rd Edition of the Young Entrepreneurs Forum which is an initiative by the GIPC was on the theme “CONNECT, ACCELERATE, GROW. BREAKING BOUNDARIES”. The 2 day forum seeks to offer young entrepreneurs a platform to connect with individuals with a track record of success as business people to expose them to best practices among others.
The entrepreneurs got the opportunity to sit through executive masterclasses, win mentoring opportunities, participate in a pitching contest to win support as well as exhibit their wares.
For the keynote speaker of the forum and CEO of L’AINE Services Dr. Mrs. Ellen Hagan, the key thing for success for young entrepreneurs will be their ability to get the right team to support their vision.
“A lot of the entrepreneurs need to be mentored, encouraged, be guided not to repeat the mistakes of other entrepreneurs and be assured that if it’s been done before then they can do it. We need to teach them how to build systems, how to recruit correctly, and more importantly let them know how to let their businesses thrive without them.”
Participants sat through masterclass sessions on topics like Growth Hacking which was handled by Thea Sokolowski, Director of Marketing at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) as well as Internationalization Strategies of Ghanaian SMEs’: Breaking into the African Market which was handled by Dr. Stephen Armah, Head of the Business Department at Ashesi University.