Attitudinal change needed for sustainable entrepreneurship – Horseman Shoes CEO

Tema June 11, CDA Consult - Mr. Tonyi Senayah, Chief Executive Officer of Horseman Shoes has advocated for attitudinal change among Ghanaians as one of the needed measures to ensure the sustainability of the entrepreneurship drive in the country.

Mr. Senayah said this when he addressed the topic “Youth Entrepreneurship: A Catalyst for Curbing Unemployment” at the Ishmael Yamson and Associates Roundtable Discussions 22 as monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema.

He said there was the need for individuals to have a change of mindset for entrepreneurship to thrive in Ghana despite successive governments’ role in developing, and creating an enabling environment for small businesses to survive through policy interventions.

“We have most often, at such occasions focused the conversations on the hard issues and given little attention to one most important factor critical for the economic turnaround of our country,” he said.

He added that all the discussions on the issue would be meaningless “if Ghana does not create a cultural outlook and attitudinal change,” which he said could only be achieved when Ghanaians develop a mindset that encourages integrity, and discipline instead of entitlement.

He added that “The Ghanaian generally has very poor work ethics, and this is seen across various sectors, from the civil service, through to employees in the private sector, professionals, small businesses, and artisans.”

The Horseman Shoes CEO also advocated for the introduction of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) across all levels of education saying the world today was in dire need of skilled hands to champion the rapid development expected, amidst all the challenges the country was faced with.

He expressed excitement that, in recent times, TVET was being championed in almost every conversation on the country’s educational system, skills development, and employment, adding however that just as it was with everything else in Ghana, the talking was more than implementation.

Mr. Senayah said the need for intensification of TVET among the youth could not be overemphasized revealing that the traditional way of apprenticeship where young people who terminate their education at the lower levels go to learn a vocation from a master craftsman was dying out.

He said this has created a huge skilled labour deficit across vocations such as carpentry, mechanic, masonry, tailoring, and shoemaking among others, “It is more difficult getting skilled labour in these areas than getting funding.”

He indicated that having an aggressive and deliberate approach to TVET has the potential of considerably solving Ghana’s unemployment crisis, and therefore called equal attention to TVET schools just as being done for Grade A senior high schools that were well-resourced with qualified teachers, infrastructure, and teaching and learning materials.

He said having such attention and resources would make TVET attractive to the youth and help address stereotyping against people who pursue such courses.

He said was not enough to have governmental interventions, as, without deliberateness and commitment to make them work effectively, the needed change for the youth unemployment and the growth of the economy would not be achieved.