The immediate past president of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Barima Dr Ofori Ameyaw I, has called on members of the Senior Staff Association (SSA) of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) to take advantage of the opportunities available within the entrepreneurship space to rake in additional income.
According to him, senior staff members while in active service could venture into entrepreneurship as a pastime to cater for themselves even after retirement.
Barima Dr Ameyaw I, who is also the Kwahufour Tufuhene, made the call when he was speaking at the SSA-UCC entrepreneurship seminar on the theme, "Empowering Senior Staff for Entrepreneurial Success; An Added Advantage."
The former GUTA President encouraged the members to learn to take risks to enhance their income.
Barima Dr Ofori Ameyaw I addressing the seminar
He noted risks enable one to learn new skills and grow already existing ones.
Drawing from his personal experience, Barima Dr Ameyaw I told the senior staff of the many difficulties that fraught his entrepreneurial journey and counselled them to take the bull by the horns to face challenges associated with entrepreneurship.
The former GUTA President, who is known in private life as George Kweku Ofori, expressed worry that the youth in the country were obsessed with getting employed in the public sector to receive salaries rather than “daring to be entrepreneurs.”
He noted that the infiltration of all sectors of the retail trading market in Ghana by non-Ghanaian nationals was an affront to the GIPC Act 865.
Barima Dr Ameyaw said if the illegal activities of the foreigners were not stopped, it could take a toll on entrepreneurship in the country.
He, therefore, passionately appealed to Parliament through the Member of Parliament of Cape Coast North, Dr. Kwamena Minta Nyarku, who was present at the seminar, to swiftly come up with pragmatic measures to solve the challenges.
The Director of the Office of Ethics and Internal Investigations at the Bank of Ghana, Mr Bernard Otabil, for his part, asked entrepreneurs to adopt ethical financial responsibility to sustain their businesses.
He also underscored the importance of integrity and trust in business.
Mr Bernard Otabil
The Director of Human Resource at UCC, Rev. Isaac Baafi Sarbeng, in a remark, threw his weight behind the call for senior staff to venture into entrepreneurship but was quick to caution them against using official office hours to do business.
The seminar was chaired by Prof. (Mrs.) Mavis Serwah Benneh, the founding Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise Development at the UCC.
Source: Documentation and Information Section-UCC