By Samuel Ansah Boateng
The Chief Executive Officer of MASRI limited, Dr. Musa Addo has advised local and foreign investors as a matter of principle and goodwill assist the country’s budding young entrepreneurs to help reduce the growing unemployment rate in Ghana.
He made this call during a workshop organized for young entrepreneurs by the Tiwala Group of Companies, a commodity trading firm in Accra last week.
The workshop was held to instill confidence in young entrepreneurs and to also encourage them to be firm with their vision and work tirelessly to see those visions come to light.
As a keynote speaker, Dr. Musah Addo, who also doubles as a pastor at the Christ Embassy Church in Korle-bu, recounted some of his earlier challenges as an entrepreneur and how he managed to hold firmly in steering the affairs of his enterprises against all odds.
He encouraged participants of the workshop to eschew discipline, integrity and honesty; the three bedrock of every successful entrepreneur, he said.
Speaking to the press, Dr Musah emphasized the need for local businesses to identify talented young entrepreneurs and mentor them to enable them hone their skills for the benefits of the larger population.
“We must never see these young entrepreneurs as being in competition with our established businesses even if their area of business is in line with ours. The ecosystem is big enough to accommodate partnerships and collaborations, most of them are pregnant with very rich creative ideas that if harnessed properly can even improve the general sector our businesses operate” Dr. Musah explained.
According to him, generational values can affect how the community perceives young entrepreneurs. “Older people instinctively judge young entrepreneurs as lazy, irresponsible people, refusing to give them a chance to earn their trust. Other established entrepreneurs doubt their ability to persist with their business over time. This has pushed several young entrepreneurs with very fantastic ideas to just shelve those ideas and join the bandwagon of job seekers or unemployed graduates” he stated.
He outlined some of the challenges young entrepreneurs encounter as facing age stereotypes, financial Issues, social rejection, facing criticism, hiring employees for the first time, dealing with stress and Self-Doubt, finding customers etc.
He called on other entrepreneurs not to only look at the financial challenges of other young ones but try to assist them in other areas as well.
Dr. Musah hinted that his company, Masri Company limited has opened its doors to assist young entrepreneurs with the tenacity to make it through the business world.
He advised young entrepreneurs to develop tough skins as entrepreneurs and strive to treat people same way they would want others to treat them.
He also encouraged more females to take the entrepreneurship mantle.
