Ashesi University graduate begins entrepreneurial revolution

Youth unemployment has over the last few decades has been a topical issue for discussion in Ghana’s media as several factual information existing in the country point to the fact that over 70% of the nation’s graduates from tertiary institutions most especially do not gain employment or are underemployed.

This trend, bearing its severity has led to the formation of an association of unemployed graduates, a development some have described as pitiful yet acceptable as it stems from what genuinely is no fault of theirs.

Government and the formal private sector in the last few years have employed only a fraction of the teeming youth, worsening the situation of unemployment in the country. While the former has tried unsuccessfully to prevent the situation from reaching a ‘crisis’ stage, the latter intimates the quality of graduates churned out do not meet it’s standard.

In the face of this burdensome situation, 2014 Ashesi University alumni, Leonard Annan has commenced what is termed as “Entreprevolution” to reduce graduate unemployment in the country.

Entreprevolution is an entrepreneurial revolution that uses a bottom-up approach to encourage the creation of more startups contrary to government’s top-down approach that attempts to achieve same.

The mother accelerator organization “Entreprevolution Foundation” was born out of Mr. Annan’s ‘Adesua Ye Literacy Foundation’ which he conceived in his first year at Ashesi University. He was however convicted there was a more efficient way of tackling unemployment in Ghana when he made a first employment of two University graduates.

According to him, if young people could get the handholding they need in starting up business, they could create entrepreneurial ventures so as to employ themselves and their colleagues as well.

The accelerator provides a platform to engage individuals with entrepreneurial skills and qualities across various universities in the country, provide training on a lean methodology for starting business ventures and facilitate access to resources such as coaches, mentors and investors to launch and get the ventures on good standing.

Furthermore, the accelerator aims to supplement academic training and provide a good network that can help students develop not only the skillset but also the mindset for launching their successful entrepreneurial dreams upon graduation.

Many Students have been bitten by the ‘entrepreneurship bug’ and filled with a great desire to start various ventures even while on campus however are unable to see it materialize for various avoidable reasons.

The traction workshops with Entreprevolution have seen overwhelming youth participation and support from Ashesi University with several teams signing up to the program.

At the heart of Entreprevolution is promoting 50% female entrepreneurship.

The traction program aims to help ventures continue building and testing their value propositions over time, provide access to our pool of coaches, mentors and subject matter experts currently under development, and provide exposure to local and international investment communities through partnerships.

Mr. Leonard Annan said that “true to the bottom-up philosophy, we are currently bootstrapping this accelerator, part of which is developing these formal and informal collaborations with universities across the country in order to create a community of like-minded entrepreneurial youth, eager to turn the tide our country.”

The University of Ghana and Radford University are the next to experience the revolution before the end of the semester.

The Entreprevolution Foundation is expected to replicate the program on various university campuses across the country and looks forward to forging new partnership to expand its impact among the teeming youth pregnant with viable business ideas.