Some of the stakeholders at the event
The 2026 UPSA-1000 and Ghana Entrepreneurship Conference has urged young people to cultivate resilience, develop an entrepreneurial mindset and embrace opportunities to build sustainable businesses.
The conference was held under the theme “Be the 1 in 1000.”
It brought together entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, financial institutions, investors, policymakers and students to explore practical approaches to entrepreneurship, innovation, business development and job creation.
Speaking at the event, Regional Consultant at IGNITE Social Enterprise, Paul Elikem Dovi, encouraged aspiring entrepreneurs to prepare themselves mentally for rejection and setbacks, describing resilience as an essential ingredient for success in business.
Dovi said young people entering entrepreneurship should not depend entirely on external encouragement, but should develop the confidence and determination to pursue their goals despite criticism or discouragement.
He noted that aspiring entrepreneurs would encounter negative comments and rejection along the way, but such experiences could become stepping stones to success if properly managed.
According to him, the decision to pursue entrepreneurship may sometimes conflict with expectations from family members who may prefer their children to follow traditional career paths such as accounting, law or medicine.
He therefore urged young people to remain focused on their aspirations while developing the discipline required to navigate the challenges associated with building a business.
Dovi also highlighted the need for young entrepreneurs to explore alternative ways of starting businesses, particularly when they lack sufficient financial resources.
He said access to capital should not necessarily prevent young people with viable ideas from taking their first steps into entrepreneurship.
He pointed to the changing nature of business in the digital era, where social commerce, digital retail and relationship-based business models can provide relatively low-barrier entry points for aspiring entrepreneurs.
He said entrepreneurs could leverage smartphones, digital platforms and personal networks to identify and solve problems without necessarily requiring large physical infrastructure at the initial stage.
The Vice-Chancellor of UPSA, Professor John Kwaku Mensah Mawutor, reaffirmed the university’s commitment to equipping students with the academic and entrepreneurial skills required to thrive after graduation.
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He said the university would continue to provide students with opportunities to acquire practical skills beyond their academic programmes.
Professor Mawutor indicated that regular skills-related training programmes and seminars would be organised to give students additional competencies while they were still in school.
Using Ghanaian musician Charles Nii Armah Mensah, popularly known as Shatta Wale, as an example, the Vice-Chancellor highlighted the importance of developing a positive and productive mindset.
He referenced advice attributed to the musician that the most powerful tool people possess is the mind, and encouraged students to develop a mindset that would enable them to identify opportunities and overcome challenges.
The Paramount Chief of the Atebubu Traditional Area and President of the Atebubu Traditional Council in the Bono East Region, Ohempon Dr Yeboah Asiamah, also encouraged young people to overcome fear and take practical steps towards entrepreneurship.
He dispelled the notion that aspiring entrepreneurs must begin with large amounts of capital or sophisticated business structures.
Rather, he encouraged young people to start small and expand gradually as their businesses grow.
Ohempon Dr Asiamah said entrepreneurship was fundamentally about identifying problems within society and developing solutions that could generate value and profit.
He therefore urged students and young people to observe the challenges around them and turn them into opportunities for innovation and enterprise.
The conference also featured an entrepreneurship session by IGNITE Ghana, which serves as a Strategic Digital Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partner for the UPSA-1000 and Ghana Entrepreneurship Conference.
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