First ever Student Leaders' Forum comes up

The Leadership Empowerment and Entrepreneurial Development (LEED) Forum aims at equipping student leaders and young people to discover and develop their potentials, through interactive conferences/seminars, to enable them to have a positive impact on themselves and the larger society.

It is for the advancement of this broad objective that LEED is instituting an annual leadership performance workshop to be known as the Student Leaders’ Forum.

Ms Rebecca Donkor, the Executive Director of LEED Forum, gave this explanation when she spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra on the upcoming first Student Leaders’ Forum scheduled for September 12 and September 13, 2014 at the Trade Fair Centre, Accra.

She said effective leadership is a crucial factor that determines the success or failure of any organization, adding that since leaders are the force behind organizational success they require a lot of specialized skills to make them perform efficiently in their leadership roles.

“It is evident, therefore, that leadership training should start when students take up leadership positions in their respective institutions so that their leadership potentials can be harnessed and guided to be of benefit to the nation at large”, she said.

On the objectives of the forthcoming Forum, the Executive Director indicated that it was meant to positively influence the leadership direction of students, and the nation for that matter, since most students from the tertiary level go on to become national political leaders.

She cited Haruna Iddrisu, Freddy Blay, Dan Botwe, Baba Jamal, Arthur Kennedy, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwah and Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, among others, as examples of such metamorphosis and said the LEED Forum was essential to provide the mentorship that would enable student leaders to utilize effectively the opportunities at their disposal.

It would also build a leadership alumni for information sharing and support, as well as create an understanding of the leadership process for now and the future, she added.

Ms Donkor mentioned the University of Ghana, Legon; NAFTI; Islamic University College; University of Education, Winneba and Central University College as some of the tertiary educational institutions that had been targeted for LEED Forum’s programmes.

Others are University for Development Studies; the Ghana Institute of Journalism; University of Professional Studies; Koforidua Polytechnic and Accra Polytechnic.

Topics to be discussed at the two-day event would include Leadership and Personal Branding; Developing interpersonal skills, Team work, Entrepreneurial and Business Management; Financial Management and Strategic Investment.

Speakers would include Mr Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, the Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry; Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Deputy Minister of Education; Mr. Reginald Laryea, Chairman of the GNA Board of Directors, and Mr. James Ebo Whyte, Chief executive Officer of Roverman Productions.