The unemployment situation among young Africans is creating vulnerabilities and destroying hopes and dreams for the future. The growing number of youths including graduates exceeds job availability.
This situation is common among most countries within Sub-Sahara Africa. Creating prosperity and eradicating poverty are best achieved through entrepreneurship. Given this, Opportunity Summit is the event that seeks to ignite a creative way of serving others with value among students, young professionals, and entrepreneurs.
The Opportunity Summit is organized by Young Africans for Opportunity in collaboration with KNUST Students’ Parliament, NASPA, College of Humanities and Social Science, and the International Association of Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences and slated on 27th March 2021 at the Lecture Theatre, KNUST School of Medicine and Dentistry. The Opportunity Summit will emphasize that value creation is a way to use talent to solve social problems and has the potentials to create a prosperous future for young Africans. Opportunity Summit would focus on include: Creative Problem Solving for business creation, Critical Thinking, Value Creation, Communication, Financial literacy, and Fundraising ideas/avenues. It is a mammoth gathering of students and entrepreneurship experts.
To make this a reality, Opportunity Summit brings together three prominent speakers who will present on liberty and economic freedom, entrepreneurship, and available opportunities that will inspire participants to undertake initiatives and create for themselves financial freedom. The following are a speaker for the Opportunity Summit event:
First, Dr. Amos Mensah, Lecturer at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, KNUST will facilitate linking academics expectations to the realities of life after school. He is an experienced Agricultural, Rural Development, Environmental and Natural Resource Economist with special skills in Efficiency and Productivity Analysis including Value Chain Analysis. His research interest includes Efficiency and Productivity Analysis (Measurement of Productivity Growth and Transmission of Policies on Rural Markets), Agricultural and Food Economics Analysis (Consumer Behaviour and Experimental economic), Rural Development Policy(s) Analysis (Monitoring and Impact Evaluation), Value Chain Analysis in Agricultural Produce (Spatial and Vertical Market Integration Analysis) and Quantitative Research Methods in Development Economics (Theory and Practice). Dr. Amos Mensah loves to engage with the youths and young individuals, impacting their life and causing positive changes.
Also, Isaac Sesi, CEO of Sesi Technologies, Founder of Invent Electronics, and Co-founder and Vice President at Nsesa Foundation will be present at the Opportunity Summit. Heis a leading giant in advancing technological solutions to the back-bone of African’s economy, thus Agriculture. He is known for creating an affordable fix for one of the most mystifying problems for farmers in Africa. Gain Mate, a product of Sesi Technology, allows farmers and grain purchasers to affordably measure moisture levels of maize, rice, wheat, millet, sorghum, and other staples. This product is solving the simple but persistent problem which contributes to 20% of Sub-Sahara cereal output lost according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
The GainMate innovative product by Master Isaac Sesi and his team is saving farmers from losing their harvest since moist crops from one farmer risk spoiling the entire batch. Opportunity Summit will provide a venue for aspiring entrepreneurs to learn from a successful mentor like Sesi.
Finally, Peter Bismark Kwofie, Executive Director of the Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI). He is an NGO/Think Tank Development Expert and policy research analyst. He Studied diploma in Basic Education at the Presbyterian College of Education, Akropong Akwapem, and a graduate from the University of Education Winneba, with a Bachelor’s of Education. He also holds mini-MBA in leadership and management. He was among the 25 selected young Africans for the Young African Scholars Colloquium in Kenya. He was the Marketing Manager of the Builders of Today Associates, a German renewable energy NGO. He is mentoring several young individuals across sub-Saharan Africa on entrepreneurship and liberal advocacy. With his experience in Youth Employment policies and entrepreneurship development Peter has been invited by an uncountable number of organizations and associations to Lecture on Government Employment Programs and mentorship.
This is the first time in two years that the Opportunity Summit is being hosted at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). This has been made possible with support from Atlas Network, Kingscel, and ILAPI.
Be part of Opportunity Summit 2021 is free. Kindly click here and fill in your details to participate.
Article by
Barbara Ofosu
Africa Campus Convenor
