He was speaking to students at the Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy Summit, organised by the University of Ghana Allied Health Students' Association in Accra under the auspices of the Financial Secretary, Gideon Frederick Owusu, his deputy, Muntaka Mohammed, and Kwabena Asante, founder of Probity Leadership Council.

Solutions

“There are many entrepreneurs all over Ghana and even globally. But how many of them have you heard of?” he asked.

He said those people found solutions to mankind’s everyday problems.

“This is the kind of mindset you should have and solutions to financial expectations you may be looking up to,” Mr Mahama, who is also the CEO of Dzata Cement, told the students.

He related to his dream of the setting up of Dzata Cement and how it started from a problem of inferior cement he identified.

Inferior cement

“In the past, news of collapsed buildings was a regular feature in the media as a result of the usage of substandard materials for buildings. What do you think an entrepreneur will do?

“That entrepreneur, after studying and understanding the cause, will then come up with a solution and mainstream it, and when properly commercialised, brings forth the financial fortunes.

“The birth of Dzata Cement hinges on a solution to protect and add value to the construction sector. In the world of entrepreneurship, financial gains will come after the people buy into your solutions/services,” Mr Mahama schooled the students.

He urged the students, who wanted to be successful entrepreneurs to first of all be innovative, commercialise their innovations and be financially literate.

“How are you able to convert your innovative ideas into a resilient entrepreneurship concept with a global reach in mind.

“With the existence of technology, cross-border transactions among different countries have become possible.

You can cite Netflix and Amazon as an example,” Mr Mahama added.

He advised the students to eschew selfishness and collaborate if need be in the building of their businesses, urging them to learn to avoid the “I want to do it all by myself” culture.

“There are times you must rely on friends with expertise in some fields, learn to collaborate to create value for your ideas.

“In all of these, do not limit your target market or audience to people within your community or country, the world’s population should be your target market to reach, work hard at it, consult more and the financial reward will naturally follow suit,” Mr Mahama further advised the students.