Meet The University of Ghana Alumnus Who Sells Vegetable In Market For A Living
- Prince Owusu Atakora, a University of Ghana graduate struggled to land a full-time job with his earned degree after school
- His desire has always been to work with animals hence pursued a bachelor's degree in Agriculture majoring in Animal Science
- Atakora made the decision to join his mother sell vegetables at the market when all efforts to get employed were unsuccessful
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Prince Owusu Atakora has always had a liking for animals and so even as a young boy, he knew exactly what he wanted to be in the future.
The young man set out on a quest to pursue a career in agriculture, specifically animal science but would soon come face to face with the reality that having just a dream in hand, in most cases, does not cut it in Ghana.
Source: UGC
In an interview with YEN.com.gh, Prince opened up about how his journey has been thus far.
The hunt for a job after completing University of Ghana, Legon
Prince was well aware of the struggle when it came to finding a job after school. He therefore wasted no time trying to get a good job offer.
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"I started by job search right after school in 2017 even before I got posted to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture for my national service because I knew it was not easy to be gainfully employed in Ghana especially as a fresh graduate"
Source: UGC
After many failed attempts to land a job, Prince made the decision to put his dream of working with animals aside to pursue a career in the military.
Once again, he applied to be recruited only to receive a series of 'nos'.
"I did not have much money on me but the little I did, I bought the army forms with it for 3 good times and I was rejected all those times"
Venturing into selling vegetables at the market
The university graduate had a decision to make, to sit at home with no job or to make good use of his time through engaging in something for the time being and he chose the latter.
Lucky for him, he had a mother who sells vegetables at the market and although it was not the typical line of work for a tertiary educated person, Prince chose to venture into the trade for the time being.
"My mum sells at the market and it one day dawned on me that I can actually start selling vegetables just like her instead of sitting home drowning myself in boredom and sadness, so I began helping her and along the line I ventured into other things", he told YEN.com.gh.
Source: UGC
Gradually, Prince was able to save up some money to started selling drinking water, mushrooms and yoghurt in addition to the vegetables.
He also came up with the idea of running errands for busy corporate people and has been successful at that.
Prince is determined to succeed but there are minor set backs that prevent him from blossoming completely, funds to expand.
"Often at times, I want to increase my inventory, but because I don't have enough money, I am constrained. I tried going for a business loan from a bank but the interest was almost 25% and that is a lot for me."
Plans for the future
Source: UGC
Prince has not given up on his dream to work with animals someday. The hope is to one day land a job in the field and juggle that along with his current engagements.
"I am praying to land a full time job with my animal science background and when that happens, i will sell the vegetable on part time basis"
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Source: YEN.com.gh
