Ghana has experienced strong GDP growth in recent years (as much as 15% in 2011), in part due to the competitive business climate here, relative to many countries in Africa. Ghana is abundant in natural resources (oil, manganese, and gold, for example) and is one of the world's primary exporters of cocoa.
Natural resources alone however, are not the reason that Ghana is progressing toward its development goals. The future of the Ghana's economy is also bright, in part, because it's youth are energized about business and entrepreneurship.
We had the opportunity to experience first-hand the energy and enthusiasm of Ghanaian youth as guests at Archbishop Porter Girls Secondary School. We worked with the second year business students (about 150 girls, aged 15-17) in particular. We talked about why entrepreneurship matters, presented strategies for coming up with ideas, and discussed what is contained in a business plan.
The girls were split into groups for the final exercise of the workshop. We challenged each group to brainstorm and present an idea for a business that could be started with 50 Ghana Cedis or less (approximately $20 Canadian) and to highlight some of the key aspects of a business plan in their presentations. We were impressed by the creatively of each idea.
Ideas for merchandise made in African styles from recycled materials, frozen ice-cream snack treats made from real milk (not widely available here), and bookmarks for students that can also be used as key chains were some of the creative proposals.
Some of the members of the winning team.
We were excited to invite six girls from the winning group to attend a Micro Enterprise Conference organized by IT4Teens, the Takoradi YMCA, and YCI on July 16 to network with other entrepreneurs and micro finance institutions.
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