Another session of the NUGS-China mentorship series, organized in collaboration with the Ghana Mission in Beijing just ended with the West African Business Ambssador on Sunday, May 24.
The virtual meeting, which was dubbed ” Successful Business Partnerships; Chellenges and Prospects”, featured one of Ghana’s renowned business personalities, Dr. Ernest Ofori Sarpong. His invitation comes a fortnight after the session with Hon. Kennedy Agyapong on the same program.
The program, which seeks to groom mainly Ghanaian students and ex-pats in China on successful entrepreneurship and business management, as well as wealth wealth management and portfolio diversification, is an initiative of H.E. Edward Boateng, Ghana’s Ambassador to China, and the leadership of the NUGS-China in promoting innovation and financial independence among the Ghanaian youth—a gateway to Ghana’s development.
Gracing the occasion were, the Ambassador H.E. Mr. Edward Boateng, Mr. Abu Osuman, Minister Counselor in Charge of Political Affairs at the Ghana Embassy, Mr. Alfred N. A. Hammond, First Secretary in charge of Consular Affairs, and Dr. Kufuor, lecturer at Nottingham University Ningbo Campus, who joined the over 200 Ghanaian youth that assembled on zoom.
Speaking on where his success story began, the West African Business Ambassador recounted his earlier days at Mokorla where he used to assist his mother in petty trading before he started his own business in the late 80s. Using his notable partnership with Osei Kwame Despite as an example, he advised the use on the essense of healthy business partnerships for entreneurship success. In building partnerships, he asserted, trust, hardwork and honesty should be the centre each other’s operations to ensure longer cooperation and perpetuity of success.
‘Entrepreneurship is about finding a social problem and providing solution for it” he said. He challenged his listeners to be diligent in devising solutions in the form of business and entrepreneuship to solve the many problems our country faces. Reiterating a point that was made by Hon. Kennedy Agyapong a fortnight earlier, he advised young entrepreneurs to be circumspect with how they deal with their family members who may depend on them financially in the early stages of their start ups. Clarifying his point, he said many entrepreneurs lose sight of their dreams due to overdependence of family members on their potential capital.
Asked on how his daily routine looks like, the multi millionaire revealed his passion for sports, precisely football of which he developed a passion for in his time at PRESEC legon. To him, family and business is everything, so his time is perfectly divided in two—12 hours for his family and the other half for his business. Some of his free times are spent on sportint activities like jogging and playing soccer with his friends. Ending his session, Dr. Sarpong thanked the Union and most importantly the Ambassador for his effort in organizing such mentorship series for Ghanaians in the diaspora.
Dr. Kufuor, a Ghanaian lecturer at Nottingham University who had been listening to the interview session also showed his appreciation by thanking the national executive committee and the Ambssador for the initiative. He advised the members to put in all effort in supporting this administration and successive ones in ensuring the welfare of Ghanain students in China.
The dialogue ended with a final address from the Ambassador who doubled as the Chairman and a co-MC for the night. He thanked the Dr. Sarpong for taking time off his busy schedule to educate the youth. He further challenged students to make a life-time goal in solving one of Ghana’s problems in all sectors of the economy—it might be the health, agriculture, or transport sector.
