{"id":354086,"date":"2017-09-18T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T06:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=354086"},"modified":"2017-11-10T11:20:08","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T11:20:08","slug":"ghanas-osei-bonsu-shares-experience-on-nurturing-job-creators-at-yalis-ignite-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/09\/ghanas-osei-bonsu-shares-experience-on-nurturing-job-creators-at-yalis-ignite-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghana\u2019s Osei Bonsu shares experience on nurturing \u2018job creators\u2019 at YALI\u2019s Ignite Talks"},"content":{"rendered":"
Ghanaian Philip Osei Bonsu, a 2017 Mandela Washington fellow, had the rare privilege of sharing his experience in nurturing entrepreneurs to his compatriots in the United States at the Ignite Talk Series as part of this year’s Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit in Washington DC.<\/p>\n
Philip was selected as an Ignite Speaker to represent the University of San Diego, California. After six weeks of academic institute, leadership training and networking in 38 Universities across the US, all 1000 fellows converged in Washington DC for the 3-day summit.<\/p>\n
Philip, who is concerned about the African continent\u2019s biggest challenge of a growing population with fewer jobs, has commenced an initiative in Ghana\u2019s Western Region, where he\u2019s nurturing entrepreneurs, some of whom have commenced their start-ups.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my country Ghana, 48% of the youth (15-34 year olds) have no jobs. This is largely because the Ghanaian system builds job seekers and not job creators. So we have over 300,000 youth leaving our various tertiary institutions chasing for non-existent jobs\u201d Osei Bonsu lamented.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is my humble opinion that of all the challenges we need to solve as a continent, the most important one is job creation for our youth. This is the safest and most prudent thing to do in order not to undermine the continent\u2019s relative political and social stability. Unemployed youth are likely breeding grounds for criminals, insurgency and terrorism\u201d Osei Bonsu emphasized.<\/p>\n
Making reference to an article he read in 2016 on the website of Financial Times titled \u201cAfrica\u2019s population boom is both danger and opportunity\u201d, the writer, David Pilling, amongst other things stated that; one of the great structural changes of the coming decades will be the huge relative shift of the global population to Africa.<\/p>\n
Philip, who was intrigued by this assertion, researched further to establish that; more than one billion people live in Africa, and roughly the same as in each of Europe and the Americas, although those continents have stopped growing.<\/p>\n
He mentioned that, Africa\u2019s population, by contrast, will double to Two billion by 2050, whereas Asia will also add one billion to reach Five billion \u2014 and then stop. Africa he said will keep going and by 2100, its population could easily have doubled again, stating that at least four billion of the world\u2019s Eleven Billion people by 2100, will be Africans, as against the current one billion figure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gets really interesting when you consider the growth in the continent\u2019s youthful population; Africa\u2019s population is the youngest at the moment, with a median age of just 20. That compares with 43 in Europe, and by 2035, more than half of all new jobseekers will be Africans. Africa will thus have the largest workforce in the world by 2035\u2014 larger than China and India\u2019s. As a result, 1.1 billion people will need jobs on the continent.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the question that bothers Osei Bonsu the most; is how the continent can create 1.1bn jobs for these people in just Eighteen (18) years.<\/p>\n
He is however of the firm belief that, this challenge can only be surmounted when the continent focuses on raising entrepreneurs \u2013 \u201ccreating job creators and not job seekers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osei Bonsu elaborated further on what he had done as a communication\u2019s professional, to raise a generation of entrepreneurs among Ghana\u2019s youth population.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cGhana\u2019s biggest challenge can thus be summed up in one phrase \u2013 Jobs for the Youth. Now, as somebody who fundamentally believes in a world where every youth who is able and willing to work must have a job, I had to ACT. So I put together a team of young and enthusiastic men and women, and for unemployed youth between 15-35 years in Ghana\u2019s Western Region, we provide a platform for skills training, information sharing and networking that enables them to start their own businesses. Our aim is to demystify entrepreneurship and make it attractive to the youth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is absolutely important because to be able to create jobs for the 48% unemployed youth in Ghana, we need to rapidly develop young entrepreneurs who can create their own jobs \u2013 and jobs for other young people.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2016, Osei and his team got 253 youths to attend their maiden entrepreneurship summit, and many others listened and watched on Radio and TV. With the help of our partners, they secured 25 internship opportunities for the first 25 people to arrive at the venue.<\/p>\n
So far, 12 participants have launched their start-ups, majority of them in Agribusiness, and Osei hopes to make this an annual event.<\/p>\n
In concluding his presentation, Osei Bonsu rallied his Mandela Washington Fellows, some of whom are equally solving the canker of unemployment through various start-ups in their respective countries, to keep at it, and make the continent a better place.<\/p>\n