4 reasons why young Ghanaians should be careful about the entrepreneurship gospel
Entrepreneurship is now the gospel politicians and rich individuals are preaching to young graduates out of universities but it is not hard to see that this gospel is not really the good news for Ghanaian youth.
The Ghanaian graduate, even before they make it out of the tertiary institution, has been told several times at seminars and at lectures that the only way they can survive in modern Ghana is through entrepreneurship.
Young people are told to never put their full faith in the job market but rather look at setting up their own places. If they want to be the millionaires of tomorrow, they have to be their own bosses today.
This is all well and good but it is a very unfortunate promise sold to young people by elders who should know better.
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1. If all of these people are bosses, who are the workers?
The preachers of the gospel of entrepreneurship talk as if there will be no need for low-skilled workers with the least amount of education.
Any functioning economy will need vocational and technical hands who will handle non-management business. What is the rush with everyone becoming bosses?
2. They needlessly talk as if everyone has equal access to finances to start a business
Let us assume that there are no rich parents who fund the business dreams of some of their kids. Are we to believe that financial institutions will give monies to all loan applicants?
Are we to believe that financial institutions do not look at your name, your references, your networks and who you know before they give you money? Let us not lie to ourselves.
3. How many rice sellers can we have?
Another question these entrepreneurship preaches need to answer is simple: How many people can be in a business offering the same product?
They will tell you that "if you sell your rice well, everyone will come to your shop". But does not make sense because you can ask them, "in an area of about 25 rice sellers, what is the best rice packaging or taste that will get customers?"
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4. The culture does not exist for massive youth entrepreneurship
Another thing they do not tell you is that for a successful entrepreneurial society, you need to have a culture that appreciates the different businesses that might spring up.
Take for instance, information technology and the story of Silicon Valley in the US. Silicon Valley worked because the United States had a population and culture educated enough to understand and accept the computer age.
Ghana has a population and culture that can understand fending for yourself and your family only and that is why provision stores tend to be successful.
But we are not speaking of provision stores when we ask people to be entrepreneurial, are we?
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