Build your business on strategy, not hope – Yara Boss

Mr Danquah Addo-Yobo, West Africa Regional Director, Yara Ghana, has urged participants at the 2021 Fourth Agricultural Students Career Guidance and Mentorship Dialogue (AG-STUD Africa 2021) to build their businesses on strategy and not on hope.

He said hope was not a strategy and to succeed in any business, planning, a key component in strategy, was needed to guide the progress towards success.

Speaking at a boot camp on the topic: "Building and leading and reputable and sustainable organisation - The Dos and Don'ts," Mr Addo-Yobo said though it was easy to start a business, it demanded commitment, adoption and finding of solution to challenges with a well-defined strategy.

He asked participants to follow business principles and understand the various markets, while producing to meet demands and preferences of target markets.

Mr Addo-Yobo said building relevant stakeholder networks was key to achieving a reputable and sustainable organisation and called on stakeholders to contribute to making their businesses thrive.

He stressed the need to build trusted brands, because “brands speak for themselves.”

Madam Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, the Executive Director, Agrihouse Foundation, said the first camp was held in 2018 to speak to the needs of the youth and encourage them to go into agriculture.

She said this year's was on the theme: "We have Enabled and Established the Agri-youth: Time to scale them to feed Ghana," from April 19 to 23, in Accra.

Madam Akosa said the Boot camp was designed by Agrihouse Foundation to support in leading the reawakening of the youth in agriculture and creating avenues for agriculture students’ socialisation.

She said over the years, the camp had trained and mentored about 600 students directly and about 20,000 indirectly.

Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, the Member of Parliament of Korle Klotey and Patron of AG-STUD, said it was good for young starters to collaborate with one another to derive strength to set up their businesses.

She said agriculture should be approached as a business and not left to the government alone, and urged the youth to stand for quality and not accept mediocrity.

Dr Agyemang-Rawlings called for funding for younger people who had interest in agriculture and the creation of more Civil Society Organisations to speak for youth in the sector.