Entrepreneurs are the future of the country – Stanbic boss

The Chief Executive of Stanbic Bank Ghana, Alhassan Andani, has said for Africa to develop, a good effort has to be made to identify people who are prepared to step forward and build viable enterprises to create the much needed jobs.

Speaking at the Third Commencement Ceremony of the SEED Transformation Programme, a business and entrepreneurial coaching forum, he charged Africans to come up with their own creative ideas, make a difference in the lives of people and, in the process, make enormous money for themselves and their countries.

“Ghana’s total population is currently 25 million, 35% of which are above 18 years and expected to be out of school with decent jobs. The public sector, however, employs only about 500,000 people and government uses 65% of its total revenue to pay these 500,000. There is the need for African entrepreneurs to set up viable enterprises to cater for the millions out there without jobs,” Andani said.

He said there is a direct relationship between the wealth of a country and the number of viable enterprises in that country.

“Take the United States of America for instance. They have lots of very viable companies like Apple and Microsoft. The true wealth of any entity is measured by the number of people who on a daily basis compulsively have a presence of mind about that entity. How many people wake up a day, thinking compulsively about Apple? That should tell you the wealth of Apple. Their output per year alone is several multiple folds the GDP of certain African countries,” he said.

Andani charged the entrepreneurs to make sure their enterprises are founded on very solid governance principles, can adapt to changing circumstances and their ideas can be packaged into goods and services and sold at a revenue that gives sustainable profit. He also admonished them against getting too satisfied too quickly with very little.

“Everybody says Africa is rising, a new frontier. We cannot become a new frontier if you do not run good businesses. If we do not sell to the world things that are genuinely entrepreneurial, we’ll just become glorified employees,” he added.