Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Create jobs, business opportunities – President urges graduates

 By Edmund Mingle
In other to become innovative and productive citizens, President John Mahama has charged graduates of tertiary institutions to think “outside the box” by exploring the many job creation and business opportunities in the country.
That, he said, was the only way they could effectively make use of the knowledge and skills they have acquired to become independent citizens.
Addressing the eighth congregation of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) in Accra on Saturday, President Mahama said by becoming independent and productive through innovative thinking, the youth, especially graduates would become less dependent on government for jobs.
That, he believed would help to significantly address the high graduate unemployment level, created as a result of graduates solely depending on government and others for jobs.
“You have the ability to create jobs yourselves,” he told the graduating students.
He particularly encouraged them to explore entrepreneurial opportunities and actively utilise their knowledge and skills.
According to him, the government has provided the necessary support programmes that ensure a congenial atmosphere for youth entrepreneurship to flourish, citing the Youth Enterprise Support as one of those interventions that focus on business development for graduates.
“These interventions have been designed to assist the youth to undertake entrepreneurial initiatives that would create jobs for themselves and others,” he said.
A total of 2,575 students, consisting of 1,836 undergraduates, 421 postgraduates and 318 diploma students, graduated at the congregation.
Drolor Bosso Adamtey I, Chancellor of the university, for his part, congratulated the graduands for the achievement, and urged them to make good use of the knowledge acquired to support national development.
Commenting on the progress of the university, the commended the lecturers for their immense contribution, and particularly praised the Vice Chancellor, Professor Joshua Alabi for his leadership role in transforming the institution into a centre of excellence.
According to him, under the focused leadership of the Vice Chancellort, UPSA has expanded significantly in academics and infrastructure, and gave the assurance that the necessary measures would be instituted by the Governing Council to sustain the progress and maintain the standards.
As part of the congregation, President Mahama commissioned a 1,600 seater- capacity library, which consists of reading rooms, an information communication telecommunication centre, offices and books gallery that has the capacity for more than 30,000 books.
It was jointly funded by the Ghana Education Trust Fund and the university, through its internally generated fund.

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