Higher Educational Institutions and The Development Of Entrepreneurship: Prospects And Opportunities

I deem it a great honour to be accorded this opportunity to be the Guest Speaker at the 14th Graduation of this vibrant institution, our dear Data Link Institute of Business and Technology, Tema. I am grateful to the Institute’s Management for the honour done me to share my thoughts with the graduands on this august occasion.

Accepting the task to be the Guest Speaker has since then left me thinking as to what to say to my dear university community, graduands and the nation at large. However, upon sober reflection on the state of our country, I realised the theme “Higher Educational Institutions and The Development Of Entrepreneurship: Prospects And Opportunities” is appropriate, long overdue and very close to my heart. How would we cure the unemployed graduates Association?

Appropriateness and relevance of the theme. Chairperson, permit me to delve into history and put the appropriateness and the relevance of the theme into proper perspective. The advocacy for the introduction of entrepreneurship education at all levels of the educational system especially dates back to the late 1990s. This move is to help address the increasing rate of youth and graduate unemployment, over-dependence on white-collar jobs, declining economic growth and improvement in the general national development.

Mr Chairman, the above scenario has serious implications not only on the peace and security of our country but also on the west African Sub-region and globally. Dr Priscilla Twuamasi Baffour recently opined that the unemployment rate in the country is quite alarming, adding that it is a matter of national security threat. To solve the issue of unemployment, the government ought to take “a critical look at our strategies towards employment generation (Twumasi-Baffour, 2022).

It has been the practice before our time in University, my dad’s time, where companies came to the Universities to recruit and people left universities with many job offers and the challenge was which one to choose.

Then came our time when you left university with options of places to apply to for a job. You could apply for jobs in the newspapers or just write to any of the formal organizations and one was bound to find a job.

However, it is still a common sight to see young graduates these days still roaming the corridors of offices seeking jobs that are non-existent. They forget that that time is long gone and they need to wake up and smell the coffee. How many people are graduating from university and how job openings exist?

So, what do you see, if after the 1^st degree they do not get the jobs, they are looking for, some would then opt to go for their Masters hoping that someone else would employ them? They come back and find out that there are still no jobs. It does not cross their minds that they too could be employing others.

We cannot have the situation where those who have not had the opportunity of higher echelons of education are the ones who set up businesses and employ us, the crème de la crème of society. That is turning what ought to be upside down. To whom much is given, we should expect more from!

Those of us who have had the opportunity of higher education should be ones engaging in self-created ventures with the skills acquired at the universities and employing the less privileged.

Chairperson! Permit me not to bore this august gathering with an academic lecture with statistical evidence as required of the Professors about the graduate unemployment and subsequent security implications because of time. However, I would want to agree with Dr Twumasi Baffour that “As a country, we need to take a serious look at the structure of the economy and the resources. Why does the economy perform well on average in terms of growth but struggles to generate jobs? Perhaps it is time for us to pause and assess our industrialisation strategy over time,”(Twumasi-Baffour, 2022).

I dare say we need to also look at how we are educating our youth and preparing them for the world of work. They should also be evaluating how they plan for the world of work. Quite recently, a government source was quoted as saying “Government payroll is full”. All these call for the need for graduates to acquire entrepreneurial skills and nature the environment to put them into practice.

The intervention of Higher Educational Institutions in the Development of Entrepreneurship. Chairperson, distinguished guests, it is from the above context that universities are called upon to intervene. And intervene we must, what is a university if it cannot solve the critical challenges that confront us as a people.

Entrepreneurship is about knowledge; it is a science and an art; it is about skills even at an advanced level. The question is which institutions are most endowed with imparting such knowledge and skills? It is the entrepreneurial university that provides a good environment, culture, opportunities, and practices that enhance student entrepreneurship (Salem, 2014). From this, students graduate with the right attitude with support from industry, government and other institutions to establish their businesses. With this being the future direction, the university academic affairs should focus on two missions: first excellent research and second the transfer of knowledge.

PROSPECTS AND OPPORTUNITIES. Chairperson! There is growing evidence globally about the immense contributions entrepreneurship has made. Entrepreneurship is seen as means for accelerating job opportunities – for youth employment and for poverty reduction. It is interesting to note that out of the 10 top companies by market capitalization; 3 of them Microsoft the 2^nd, Google the 4^th and Meta, Facebook 7^th are companies that were started by students. This is in addition to these other companies that I am sure you would recognize which were also started by students like you; Dell, Reddit, SnapChat, WordPress, Napster, Dropbox and Kinko’s.(CompaniesMarketCap.com, 2022)

Why can this not be you, our graduands and those of you still in Data Link? You can do it and build even better companies, with what Data Link is offering you, once you put your minds to it. Locally, we have brands that have been built from the names of entrepreneurship. You have the older ones like; Multimedia Group and Despite Group in the media built by then young entrepreneurs then.

Now in the Fintech subsector, we have some young Ghanaians making great exploits; Zeepay, Hubtel, IT Consortium just to name a few, are companies you should emulate and beat. Apart from these, there are various unsung heroes of entrepreneurship, solving problems, building brands and creating jobs.

Apart from being self-employed, entrepreneurship also brightens a graduate’s chances of employability with already established businesses. It is important to instil the spirit of intrapreneurship even when you work for others. That is a skill that would keep you in the job and push you to the very top.

Apart from the skills that the University would help inculcate to the students and the teamwork as well as networking that campus would instil into students. There are other prerequisites that are required to grow and nurture entrepreneurship.

It is not just finance, and lazy capital that government and other stakeholders should make available. Great entrepreneurship starts with ideas. So how do we engender ideation among the youth? How do we ensure that we can protect the ideas that the youth come up with in their entrepreneurship journey? What intellectual property schemes would we put in place? What other agencies would we put together to provide young entrepreneurs technical support including legal, marketing, research and other support? All of this is critical as well as providing lazy capital.

As a country, we should also believe in our youth and offer them opportunities. We should be ready to offer national, regional and district projects to young entrepreneurs. We need to invest in them to allow them to fail forward and build their capacities. We should also have means of putting them together for national projects. The example of the Ghana.Gov project is a good example by Government that should be made the norm.

In sum, to arrive at successful implementation of entrepreneurship education at the universities there must be a government policy, private sector partnership as well curriculum and teacher development. We need to see the universities as crucibles to develop the next giants of the business. This includes the private universities that are contributing a great deal to developing human capital. However, the institutions also have financial challenges and government should find ways of incentivising those who grow the timber of entrepreneurs that the country is in dire need of. Let us tailor support in terms of tax holidays, access to cheap sources of borrowable funds, provision of infrastructure such as good roads to these schools, IT infrastructure etc to support their efforts.

To my graduands. Chairperson, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, today’s speech cannot end without a word to the graduands. I know some are already bored with these long speeches and eager to continue their parties and taking of memorable graduation pictures.

Yes graduands, today is your day. It marks the beginning of another milestone in your academic or professional journey. Whiles some of you are just going to present your certificates for promotion, the majority are now going to start seeking jobs.

For those, beginners, my advice is that start exploiting the few entrepreneurial skills that you acquired while at the university. Build the business of the future, focus on the needs and challenges you see around you. Seek further advice and support from industry, government institutions and other sources. Note African Continental Free Trade Area has been launched, it offers many opportunities. The market is no more just Ghana, but Africa.

You are also entering into the post-COVID-19 world. You are not limited to space and location, language is no longer a barrier, you can translate in real-time. The world has been reset and the opportunities are varied, new and evolving. If you do not eat others’ lunch, they would come from elsewhere and take what belongs to you away. Take a good look at digitalization and how you can use technology to solve the problems that confront us. These are all opportunities, to create your own future. You have the adage that “Think outside the box. ” I say to you that outside the box is full, you have to create your own box to survive.

I would also like to express my gratitude to all faculty, administrators, parents, counsellors, families and friends whose guidance, encouragement, hard work and sacrifices have contributed in no small way to making this day a memorable one for you our cherished graduands. Learning is not an easy task especially if you put in all the work that is required to be a transformative agent that today’s digitally transformed world requires.

Mr Chairman Distinguished guests, my colleagues from the inky fraternity, ladies and gentlemen. What is a race without a finish, what is a cause without completion, what is a beginning without an end, what is a cross without a resurrection? So, what would be matriculation without a congregation? Nunya, adidoe, asi deka metunee o—to wit, “Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual can embrace it.”

That is what your education has done for you. I pray it has offered you the ability to garner the hands necessary to be able to fully embrace it. I pray you have also offered your hands to complete the embrace. Acquiring knowledge is not an event, it is a process, this is what your graduation should have continued for you. If you really immersed yourself in your course of study, and you took in all that Data Link had to offer you, then you would know that this graduation is but the beginning of a life of continuous learning, knowledge acquisition and contribution to making the world, Africa and your Ghana a better place than you met it. I wish you well in all your endeavours.

Closing. Chairman and Council Members, President, Vice President, Registrar, Members of Convocation, Alumni and Friends of the University, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen and Graduands. Change starts with the mind. With the universities at the vanguard promoting entrepreneurship, students must take advantage and start to implement what entrepreneurial ideas they may have acquired towards creating their own businesses. Long live Data Link, Long live everybody. I wish you a successful graduation ceremony!