25-year-old making it big

At age 25, John Armah is CEO of Orios Group, a holding company with three subsidiaries – Orios Capital, a private equity firm, TradeInvest, a farm management and agribusiness advisory firm and the Ghana Center Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (GCEEI) which offers business development services for startups.

John’s entrepreneurial journey started when he was a teen. He believes his parents influenced his passion for entrepreneurship. His dad is a business man and his mum a social entrepreneur.

John’s motivation to become an entrepreneur was fueled by his desire to see the unemployment rate and poverty in Ghana reduce. He believed the path to reducing youth unemployment was through entrepreneurship. So in his teens, he started an internship recruitment firm – that was his first year in the university.

“The goal was to locate where the jobs were in Ghana and get the youth to take up those jobs”, John told JUMP.

However, John knew the path towards creating sustainable jobs was creating entrepreneurs. So his attention would turn to that.

Over the years and through GCEEI, John has supported policies aimed at advancing help to startups, establishing funds and training programs for young entrepreneurs.

Along the way, he explored his interests in agriculture and also started a private equity firm.

Transcending the age stereotype

Just like any young person wanting to start a business, John had to overcome stereotypes.

“Most young people think age is a big thing”, he noted.

Most people get surprised when they ask his age because he seems to have accomplished so much for a young person. At age 16, he was assistant human resource and marketing manager of Hotel Wangara, a popular hotel at the time. For John, age should not restrict any young person from pursuing their dreams.

Are you ready?

Sometimes John wondered whether or not he was ready.

“I thought to myself, would this work? Should I do things the traditional way – go to school and later search for a job? Every young person at a point has to battle with that”

Business is not just about passion

John was driven by passion. However his entrepreneurial journey has taught him business is not just about passion.

“For most of us, we didn’t know what a business model was. We didn’t know how to draw a financial plan. Fundamentally I have come to realize that you need to have a product that you can sell. There should be people who are willing to pay for the product. There must be an existing market”, he added.

Influencer

John Armah has risen to become a great influencer for young people. In 2016, he was named among Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30, i.e. 30 most promising entrepreneurs under the age of 30 in Africa.

He has trained over 10,000 young people and helped formalize many businesses.