Youth Minister asks for collaboration between Ghanaian and Canadian youth

Ghanaian-Canadian Associations of Ontario (GCAO) held its 4th Annual Youth Leadership Conference in Toronto via Zoom on Saturday, August 21, 2021.

This year’s event was strictly ZOOM due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was attended by youth leaders in the city and moderated by Amma Gyamfowaa with Maame De-Heer as the MC.

The Guest of Honour for the event was the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif.

Speaking at the event from Tamale in Ghana via zoom, the Minister encouraged youth in the diaspora to collaborate and team up with youth in Ghana in joint ventures and entrepreneurship to create wealth and foster cross-continental relationships.

He answered a wide range of questions around the mental health of youth during this pandemic and the upcoming African youth summit to be held in Ghana. He assured the youth in Toronto that his doors are open to assist them when they come to Ghana to explore business opportunities.

He also hinted that the youth from Canada can participate in service schemes to help the country of their heritage.

In his keynote address, Randell Agyei, Ontario Poet Laureate delivered a powerful speech to motivate the youth to develop a growth and purpose mindset. Randell took the participants through how to be resilient in the pursuit of their goals in life.

He pointed out that uncertainty is an integral part of life and youth should project who they want to be and work towards that goalkeeping in mind that the path to success requires hard work, resilience, but it is all within the realm of possibilities.

Various workshops were held around mental health, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. Emcee Ebone shared with participants to keep the spirit of entrepreneurship alive despite challenges. Youth should not expect to have instant success and they should keep working at it, be focused, and trust in themselves.

He intimated that success will be hard to accomplish if youth do not believe in themselves.

Mc for the event, Maame De-Heer, encouraged the youth to explore all the opportunities in life to grow their potentials.

Amman Gyamfowaa one of the GCAO youth leaders thanked all the participants, presenters, and planning committee.

The conference was adjourned. The next conference will be in 2022 and hopefully will be an in-person conference.