The Member of Parliament for Wa West Constituency, Supt. (Rtd) Peter Lanchene Toobu has inspired young people to become the best versions of themselves during the Igniting Dreams summit held from 5th – 7th January, 2024 in Wa.
The Igniting Dreams summit is an annual youth entrepreneurship and leadership innovation program that is run by Coalition for Positive Impact (CPI), a youth-led not-for-profit organization.
Annually, the program enrolls young entrepreneurs, called Igniting Dreams finalists, from across the five regions of Northern Ghana through competitive selection processes who are provided with business development training and seed funding to scale their businesses.
Supt. Toobu, at this year’s summit on January 6, 2024, inspired the young people who were in attendance to rediscover themselves and harness their potentials to develop into effective entrepreneurs and leaders.
He said what the world needed urgently to develop and transform societies was entrepreneurship and innovation which young people must endeavour to venture into.
“Just one of you in this room can become a serious entrepreneur and you can employ more than 1000, 2000 people.
Entrepreneurship is the way to go, innovation is the thinking that we want and in fact, young people believing in themselves is actually the future for this country,” Supt. Toobu said.
He urged the young people to believe in themselves and think innovatively in bringing out solutions to problems of society and building business models around the identified solutions.
He told the young people to not be overly concerned about making money but to develop creative solutions to problems which would then lead to generation of income rather effortlessly.
“Many people who are rich in the world today didn’t begin looking for money. Look for a social problem, provide an innovative solution to that problem and money will start chasing you, you don’t look for money again.
“Money will start to chase you because that solution brings a lot of income and that solution is anchored on you, you brought it to the fore and because you brought it to the fore, when money starts to chase you, you will run away from money,” he intimated.
The lawmaker said the young people had what it takes to transform the country and that the transformative power lay right within the youth themselves.
“When you discover yourself, you will realize that you were not created to be poor, you were not created to suffer; you were created to be dynamic [and] it is that dynamism that will bring out the capacity that you have within you and you will be a transformational character in your family, in your community, in your region, and Ghana will see you,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Planning Committee of the Igniting Dreams summit, Madam Maria Johana Yuorpor urged the young entrepreneurs to stay focused with the business brands they were building and not be driven by quick financial gains.
Madam Yuorpor, who was also the CEO of Mara Foods, also encouraged the young people to invest in building good connections and networks with individuals and organizations to help boost collaborative opportunities and learning curves in order to scale up and sustain their businesses.
Mr. Mohammed Abdul-Moomin Najeeb, the Upper West Regional Director of the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), urged the young entrepreneurs to always check with the GEA for available business support schemes and leverage them to improve their businesses.
The 2024 edition of the Igniting Dreams summit was on the them, “Developing Northern Ghana through Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership” and was supported by Sangu Delle Foundation, Noni Hub, Rabito Clinic, DLight Space, Girls Education Initiative Ghana, Express Pay, mNotify, and Steward Reigns Photography.