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James Ebo Whyte, popularly referred to as Uncle Ebo Whyte, is acclaimed as Ghana’s most successful playwright and credited with the revival of theatre in the country. As the Director and Lead Writer of Roverman Productions, a company he founded, Uncle Ebo Whyte has written and directed over 45 plays for stage since 2008. Since 2008, Uncle Ebo set himself an ambitious target of releasing a play every quarter, something he had successfully done until 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, forcing the closure of cinemas in the country. His plays include Not My Husband, The Day Dad Came, Unhappy Wives Confused Husbands, Dear God Comma, Rejected, Dora Why, Blackmail and many others. Growing up from a neighbourhood which glorifies immorality, Uncle Ebo Whyte decided to make a U-turn in his life at the age of 15 when he became a Christian and has since not turned back. Speaking on the Springboard, Your Virtual University, a radio programme on Joy FM, he said, “The models I picked for life were at my very formative years because I grew up in a neighbourhood where we glorified immorality. “So when I became a Christian at the age of 15, I realized that none of them were consistent with the faith that I had acquired, so I was led to take my models from the scriptures and I picked three models: Joseph, David and Daniel.” He said there were two things common in all of them – excellence in service and faithfulness. Faithfulness in service Uncle Ebo Whyte noted that based on the models he picked, when he entered the job market, his commitment was to work as if he owned the company. “I developed this philosophy to work so hard that no matter how much a company pays you, there will be a balance for God to make up and that was my focus,” he noted. He said although God indicated to him in 1976 that he had given him theatre, that promise was fulfilled in 2008. “Within that time, I operated on another principle that whatever your hands find to do, do it well and when his time was due, he himself ushered me into this. It was then that I discovered that it had been a training for this,” he explained. Top ten principles 1.    You are not a failure until you blame someone else: This principle changed me from a whining complaining person into someone who takes responsibility for any situation. Don’t blame anything or anyone. It is a sign of weakness. Things may not be working for you but it’s not a sign of weakness; you fail when you relinquish the responsibility for your life to someone. 2.    It is the wise son who finds a juicy bone in an egg: My mother explained this in a story. She said a man gave his children eggs and asked them to decide whether to boil or fry them, but one of them took his eggs back to the chicken coop and added them to the eggs that had not yet been hatched. With time, the hen hatched the eggs that he added. He didn’t consume the eggs that were given to him; he always took them back and had chicks that grew to be hens, and his eggs now had bones. It is not everything that comes into your hands that you should consume. 3.    Resurrection still happens: In my life, I have had to start over from zero before at the age of 43. Sometimes when life throws you like that, it is very easy to roll over and die but resurrection is possible. 4.    Thoughts are things: In Ghana, we waste thoughts and we don’t take responsibility for them, but thoughts are things. You are where you are today because of the thoughts you have had in the past. Your thoughts create your reality, whether good or bad. 5.    Excellence is its own reward: In a lot of contexts, people say they are working hard but the pay is not enough so they don’t bother any more. Excellence is also a reward, so continue delivering excellence. 6.    In life, you are either having dinner or you are the dinner: In life, you are either running things and making things happen or you are running somebody’s agenda or cause, quite often at your expense, and you have to be aware of that. 7.    Life is for the courageous: You need to be strong and courageous in life. Life is not for the timid. 8.    Life is not fair so just get on with it: There are a lot of people who are bitter and they think they have cause to be, but they are only bitter with what reality is. If you don’t get this, you will fill your mind with so much negativity, pain and misery. 9.    Never give up: No matter what life throws at you, never give up. The point at which you give up may be the turning point. 10.    A lot can happen in a very short time: Sometimes, you have to start again but don’t worry because a lot can happen in a short time. The right thing might take a few months.

The Springboard, Your Virtual University, a radio programme of Joy FM, has commenced a new series which it has titled, ‘My Top Ten’. The new series seek to find out the most important principles or lessons that undergird the lives of accomplished people and even more importantly, the experiences that led them to those lessons. This is to help guide the youth who may wish to walk in the path of these accomplished entrepreneurs and business leaders. Taking his turn on the maiden edition of the series, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Margins Group, Mr Moses K. Baiden, said he started his first business at the age of 23 with just US$100 dollars from his father’s garage. He said since then, he had been in business for the past 30 years, which proved that no obstacle should be in the way of one’s purpose. “Whenever there is a will there is a way, so let’s not despise small beginnings, no matter where you are starting from,” he stated. Mr Baiden pointed out that there were several principles that had helped shaped his life, but he selected the ones that had been the most important to him, whether in business or normal life. 1. Purpose: He noted that there must be a purpose in each and everyone’s life. “There must be a purpose in everything you do. There will be several purposes during your lifetime but you cannot do everything at the same time so you have to settle on some and pursue them.” 2. Passion: “You must pursue your purpose with passion. Discipline, from the home of the school, is a selling regime that makes life easy by routinising certain actions that make you operate in this world. But beyond that, what really will keep you up is love. This is what will push you and make you have competitive edge in business. “Sometimes pursuing what you love doesn’t come with financial gains but it makes you happy. So if you balance that with some kind of financial freedom, then it will bring you fulfilment. Passion flows from the soul and it teaches you a certain regime that will only keep you focused over time, whether it gives you lots of money or not.” 3. Values: “You must have a clear set of values to govern your life. Values determine which range of passion and purposes you will pursue. It is your values that will tell you not to do anything that will result in crime or anything that does not have integrity. 4. Humanity: “You must be humane. It’s not always about money, you just recognise you are a human being and have to be humane in everything that you do. You must impact humanity and leave some footprints. 5. Knowledge: “Pursue knowledge, ask tough and good questions when you meet more accomplished people and do not forget the answers they give you. In one lifetime, it is not possible to learn everything that there is in life, so one has to recognise that to get relevant knowledge, you should read, take short courses and find people who have done it before and learn from them. 6. Embrace change: “You must embrace change because it is constant. People are afraid of change, so when they get to a comfort zone, they want to stay there but life is full of seasons. Everybody has opportunities if he/she is concentrating. You must look for a change in the pattern in order to take advantage of it. When preparing, you are looking for a set of circumstances to come together to cause a change that will make the preparations you have been making come to bear. 7. Know your customers: “Know your customers and their needs because that is the first step to problem-solving and products creation. The products come after the needs because customer needs are constant, but the products, solutions and services change.” 8. Inner peace: “Ensure you have a peaceful home. Without inner peace and the right environment, you or your vision can die prematurely. Even in choosing a partner for marriage, if you really want to be an effective leader and perform at a certain level, you need peace at home. You need the family framework and support.” 9. Understand the principle of money: “No matter how hungry you are, never eat the hen that lays the golden eggs. Don’t spend what you haven’t earned and don’t borrow for consumption. When you learn this principle, you will learn to cut your coat according to your size.” 10. Strive for excellence: “You must always strive for excellence. If you want to play in a league, you must aim for the Champions League and not the Colts League.”

Author and speaker Comfort Ocran is set to host the Springboard Hangout on e.TV Ghana beginning Sunday, 25th April 2021. The hour-long show, which will air from 5pm-6pm every Sunday, will focus on leadership, entrepreneurship, building resilience, multiple streams of income and other critical personal development areas relevant in this fast-paced and technology-driven world. There will be one-on-one sessions engaging leaders about their journey to inspire the young people of Ghana. The interactive show will allow viewers to interact with the host and e.TV Ghana on social media @etvghana and @comfortocrana (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and WhatsApp on 0544315161. Programmes Manager of e.TV Ghana, Nosisa Doe, speaking on the new addition to the station’s programming, noted, “people know Springboard as a platform that has connected many students, professionals and business leaders across the globe. e.TV Ghana is poised to partner with this initiative to reach and engage an even wider audience. We are positive that this action will impact the lives of many businesses and families.” Comfort Ocran, on her part, expressed her elation at this partnership with e.TV Ghana and said, “I am delighted to partner e.TV Ghana to bring gripping content from the Springboard Hangout to television. This partnership enhances our reach and efforts to help many take action and control of their future, a path we have pursued for many years. Join me on e.tv Ghana, and let’s develop and learn from industry leaders while having fun at the same time.”  The Springboard Hangout is an initiative of the Springboard Road Show Foundation under the leadership of Albert & Comfort Ocran, promoters of the annual Springboard Road Show and other youth development and mentoring initiatives.

Wherever you are, joining us from all over the world, HELLO, and welcome to the 15th edition of the Springboard Road Show. Today is historic because this is the first-ever totally virtual convocation of the Road Show which has been running for the past 14 years since January 2007. This year we are hosting 4 virtual sessions in April, June, September and November. Today, is therefore, the first of four amazing experiences. For those joining us for the first time and asking what this is all about; the Springboard Road Show is a mentoring platform that generates conversations and interactions between achievers and young people about Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Talent, Investment and Career Development. If there ever was a time when such conversations are needed, it is now. This generation of young people is facing challenges previous generations did not face, they are dealing with pressures their parents are unfamiliar with an they are asking questions someone needs to answer. Springboard will continue working with young people and helping them to become the very best that they can be… leaders of this great continent of ours. The Springboard theme for this year is REPOSITIONING. We say we are reviewing the PAST, redesigning the PRESENT and reimagining the FUTURE.  The changes the world has seen, especially with COVID-19 and the growth of technology and innovation has meant that individuals, companies and even nations have to radically rethink their ways of doing things and reposition themselves for the future. The virtual convocation of Springboard is a clear example of REPOSITIONING. As you probably may know, the Road Show has over the years taken us to all regions of Ghana and in the year 2011, additionally to Gambia and Nigeria. Wherever we’ve stopped over, we’ve been blessed to hang out with hundreds and sometimes thousands of young people in in-person sessions with all the excitement and fun that comes with learning at Springboard. As a result, we were privileged to directly impact the lives of over 250,000 people At the 10th Edition of Springboard, four years ago, we made a bold prediction that we would increasingly go digital until one day everyone would converge virtually and seamlessly from all over the world. It was not a prophecy; but a pragmatic response to the increasing demand for the Springboard Road Show experience in several places and the humbling reality that we could not physically be at different cities at the same time. The good news is that today, our prediction has come true with the help of COVID-19. Today every young person joining us from Accra, Afram Plains, Afadjato, Navrongo, Elubo or Techiman will enjoy the same Road Show experience as their counterparts from Abuja, Freetown, Johannesburg, London or Washington. They can listen to the presentations, enjoy the entertainment, ask questions, win prizes and just enjoy the Springboard experience. Virtual is indeed a leveler. Today’s edition of the Springboard Road Show is even more relevant due the challenge that we as a nation face when we look at the unfortunate choices some of our young ones take due the pressure that they face from their peers and society. Poor choices can ruin someone’s otherwise bright future. Springboard offers a mentoring platform like no other. So today, we will receive the the Guest Mentor’s presentation by Dr. Joyce Aryee and the keynote presentation from Nana Benneh, CEO of UMB Bank. We will also have some youth voices sharing their testimonies, music by Six Strings and spoken word performance by Benumah. I will soon announce how to win some of prizes in the WOW Moments from our sponsors. We will finally have a colloquium where you can share your questions and comments and hang out with our resource persons. Springboard Road Show wouldn’t be what it is without our sponsors and partners. I would therefore like to celebrate the dynamism and commitment of our sponsors MTN Pulse, UMB Bank and the Enterprise Group. Let me also thank our media partners Multimedia Group and Graphic Communications Group. As I bring my remarks to a close, I would like a big thank you to our innovative team at Springboard for putting this together and to Team Invictus for supporting the production.

By Emmanuel Bruce The Chief Executive Officer of UMB Bank, Nana Dwemoh Benneh, has advised the youth to constantly reposition themselves in order to take full advantage of the new world. He said the world had changed several times in the last 20 years and it was therefore important for the youth to reposition themselves to take advantage of the new opportunities that have come with the changes. Speaking at the Springboard 2021 Roadshow which was held virtually under the theme ‘repositioning”, Nana Benneh shared with the youth some key lessons which would help them reposition themselves in today’s world. Appreciating how the world sees you He advised the youth to appreciate more how the world sees them than how they see themselves. “The big lesson I have learnt is that, it is not about me but what the world appreciates about me. The skills that you think are important to you may not necessarily be the skills that others appreciate or want so when working with clients, you must pay attention to what it is that they require from you. “Many of us have lots of skills but sometimes we tend to appreciate some more because that is how we like to see ourselves but you must pay heed to what the world is telling you they appreciate about you and that is the value of feedback,” he advised. He urged them to learn to understand what the world values most about them and use that to be their success tool. In doing so, he, however, cautioned them not to compromise on their integrity and ethics just to please others. “Your integrity and ethics must not be compromised even in your quest to satisfy your clients or boss,” he stated. He, however, advised them to do so quietly, firmly and consistently. “It is often good to state your case quietly, firmly and consistently so that people will associate you with a certain set of values,” he stated. Continuous learning journey Nana Benneh also advised the youth to see life a continuous learning journey which only ends when there is no more life. “Life is a continuous learning journey and the destination is when life ends. I smile when people ask me how I got to the top, because, for me, I do not recognize the top. It is a journey, when we say how we got to the top, we see it as a destination but it never ends. ” In our repositioning, we need to realise that whichever level we get to is just another step in the life long journey. Once we think that way, it enables us to continually reposition ourselves and make ourselves relevant in the fast changing world,” he explained. Survival in this world  The CEO, also pointed out that the current world was a far cry from the Eden that the Lord designed the world to be. “We are faced daily with stresses even as we continually develop and we have to recognize that there is stress in the world. In the past, it was a sign of weakness when someone succumbed to stress, but in this new world, it is a sign of strength to admit that you need help. “We have to own up to the stresses engulfing us and seek help. The very world we live in now has made it part of our lives and therefore being proactive to deal with it is a sure strategy to help us reposition ourselves,” he stated. Investing time and energy Also speaking on the programme, the Founder of the Salt and Light Ministries, Dr Joyce Aryee, urged the youth to invest their time, energy, and talents into repositioning themselves. She also urged them to make integrity a key pillar in their lives. “You must be true to yourself and to the people around you. Being true to yourself means you are anchored on some strong values. “One of the strongest values is that life is not a population of just yourself but about others and yourself; and that what you do in the public space to make the lives of other people better is best of all and makes you fulfilled,” she explained. Need for a vision Dr Aryee also advised the youth to have a unique vision if they are to survive in the new world. “What is your life about? Because we are not true to ourselves, we even try to grab the vision of others but we are all different people. “The world is so big and all of us can make huge contributions but what we need is to determine how you want to contribute. Own your vision, believe in it and shape it,” she said. About the Springboard Roadshow The roadshow is a mentoring platform that generates conversations and interceptions between achievers and young people. It discusses topics ranging from leadership, entrepreneurship, talent, investments and career development. This year’s event which is the 15th edition was held totally virtually for the first time. Executive Director of the Springboard Roadshow Foundation, Mrs Comfort Ocran, said the Foundation would continue working with young people and equipping them to become significant leaders on the continent. She said the changes that the world had seen especially with COVID-19 and the growth of technology and innovation have meant that that individuals, companies and nations now have to radically rethink the ways they do things and reposition themselves for the future.

This year’s edition of the annual Springboard Road Show is to be held virtually starting from this Thursday 8th April, 2021. There will be four virtual events in April, June, September and November. This was made known by Mrs Comfort Ocran, Executive Director of the Springboard Roadshow Foundation, organisers of the event, at the media launch of the event on the weekly Springboard Virtual University broadcast over the weekend. “Your favourite Springboard Road Show is going digital in 2021; we will have planned four virtual events to give our participants an all-year-round experience”, Mrs Ocran indicated. The inaugural edition of the Springboard Road Show was held in January 2007 at the Osu Presbyterian Hall in Accra. Since then, the Road Show has gone on to become a household name with young people converging in their thousands every year to listen to achievers from various fields and interact with them in a mentoring experience. After travelling round the regions of Ghana for a decade and moving on to Gambia and Nigeria, organisers of the Road Show announced in their 10th year that they were turning their attention to digital engagement of participants. “At that time, we could not have anticipated the COVID-19 pandemic. We just knew that the online audiences were participating from different towns and countries and enjoying the experience. And it was so flexible to engage them that way, said Rev. Albert Ocran, co-founder of the Springboard Roadshow Foundation. Rev. Ocran added that the theme for the Springboard 2021 Road Show is REPOSITIONING. The deliberations at the various Road Show events will therefore focus on reviewing the past, redesigning the present and reimagining the future. Commenting on the theme, Mrs Phyllis Woode-Nartey, Head of Group Communications and Synergies at the Enterprise Group, who spoke at the launch, said REPOSITIONING resonates well with the Enterprise Group because the company has repositioned as a digitally enabled firm for the benefit of its internal and external stakeholders. “The Enterprise Group continues to partner with Springboard because their objectives are aligned our values of professionalism, trust, excellence, reliability and friendliness”, Mrs Woode-Nartey opined. She added that “Springboard delivers relevant knowledge and the tools to navigate your way forward in life. And it is the place to be if you want to move your professional life forward.” “The virtual Springboard 2021 Road Show is itself a lesson in resilience, adaptation and making adversity work for you”, she added. Making his submission, the Head of Channels at UMB Bank, Dr Myles Hagan said Springboard has over the years provided a rare opportunity for mentors to connect with more youth who are the future of the nation’s growth and prosperity. Dr Hagan, who is himself a Springboard Road Show alumnus, said, “anytime I stand on the Springboard platform, I reflect on the past and God’s grace toward me and it assures me of a great future for participants.” He added that, “Being early adopters of digital technology has enabled UMB to effectively transition to the new normal. We will keep deploying digital platforms to sustain the momentum.” Taking his turn, Mr Franklin Sowa Group Head of Marketing, Graphic Communications Group urged young people to focus more on building quality relationships and less on being transactional and seeking quick wins. “The relationships I have built through networking on such platforms have given me significant career equity”, Mr Sowa stressed. “Even the sky will not be the limit if you make a deliberate effort to be better each day with the platform that Springboard provides.” He added that the collaboration with Springboard supports the Graphic Communications Group to remain relevant, dynamic and to operate in sync with the expectations of existing and potential clients. He further commended organizers of the Springboard Roadshow for creating an exceptional platform that is recommend for everyone, especially the youth. “Listening to life-transforming stories on the Springboard Road Show always inspires hope. It must become a national conversation,” Mr Sowa added. This Thursday’s event will have Nana Dwemoh Benneh, CEO of UMB Bank and Dr Joyce Aryee of the Salt and Light Ministries as the main speakers. The event will have alumni of Springboard Road Show from all over the world sharing stories of how it has impacted their lives. Participants can join this Thursday’s event on Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms from 10am to 12 noon. This year’s Springboard Road Show is sponsored by MTN Pulse, Enterprise Group and UMB Bank with media support from Graphic Communications Group and the Multimedia Group. Organizers are confident that virtual participants at the Springboard 2021 Road Show will enjoy not just the knowledge, but a holistic experience in every respect. “Springboard 2021 will demonstrate to participants, using real life examples, how you navigate your way from the bottom to the top of the professional ladder”, Mrs Comfort Ocran concluded.

Mr Selorm Adadevoh, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, has called on the youth to be conscious of the idea of “Fallacy of Immediacy”, which sometimes discourages them from holding onto their belief and putting in the effort to achieve their dreams. “Too often, we just don’t want it enough. If we want it enough, we shouldn’t lose belief,” he said. He said this at the Global Convocation of the 2019 Springboard Road Show held in Accra over the weekend to empower the youth to identify and build their talents. Speaking on life improvement, Mr Adadevoh said life was about opportunity versus Opportunism, explaining that opportunity was what was available to someone and opportunism was how one took advantage of the opportunity to achieve something positive. He urged the youth to add values to their lives, saying, “there’s no alternative values. It’s either you stick to your values or you don’t have values and success without values is no success”. Using his life as an example, the CEO said he believed in values such as respect, integrity and humility as they were key components to raise people higher. “Nothing in life happens by chance and the more you prepare and chase your dreams, the more your reach your destiny,” he said. Sacrifice, Mr Adadevoh said, is a fundamental investment for entitlement saying, there was no right time to do anything as one just needed to be ready to take a step. “We are all exposed to several opportunities daily but only a few see them. If we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change,” he said. Mrs Comfort Ocran, the Executive Director of the Springboard Road Show Foundation, expressed the profound gratitude of the Foundation to MTN Ghana for being the major sponsor of the Annual Show for 12 years. She said the Show was a paid for event but became free for attendees this year due to the enormous support from its sponsors. She urged participants at the event to be determined to make their lives better not just for personal gains, but in order to provide solutions to societal problems.

The 2018 edition of the Springboard Road Show, a programme that aims at mentoring business executives, civil society leaders, and role models nationwide has begun. The programme, which also aims at human capital development and social transformation is a month-long event, which would be held in four zones; Northern belt in Tamale, Middle belt in Kumasi, Western belt in Cape Coast and Global convocation in Accra. The programme is an initiative of the Springboard Road Show Foundation with support from MTN Ghana and Legacy and Legacy. The theme for this year’s event is: ‘Leveraging Strategy and Technology.’ The Reverend Albert Ocran, Executive Director of Springboard Road Show Foundation, said this year’s event was meant to empower people to leverage on technology for improved productivity. He said technology had become the driving force for economies, hence the need to empower citizens technologically to achieve maximum results. Madam Georgina Fiagbenu, a Senior Communications Manager at MTN Ghana, urged workers to be passionate about what they did to ensure excellence. She said workers must be responsible for the roles they played in organisations advising them to develop positive work attitudes to enhance productivity. Participants were taken through lessons on how to use social media and technology to drive their activities, savings and investments.

More than nine hundred students across the Central Region have benefitted from the 2020 Springboard Road Show in Cape Coast. The event held at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) is an initiative of Springboard Road Show Foundation (SRSF) and supported by MTN Ghana. It is a motivational and personal development event that provides the platform for emerging leaders, young professionals and tertiary students to draw a 10- year career, finance and property acquisition plan. Delivering the keynote address, Mr Noel Kojo-Ganson, the Chief Marketing Officer of MTN Ghana called on stakeholders to create opportunities for the youth to develop their potentials. He urged the youth to take concrete decisions that would help them achieve their goals to become greater personalities to drive national development. Speaking on the theme: “The need for emerging leaders to take stock of circumstances; how to reach your aspirations”, he explained that it was prudent for the youth to have mentors to serve as a source of motivation to empower them to conquer obstacles. The Marketing Officer encouraged young people to work harder, constantly improve their skills and take on more tasks in developing their careers. He tasked them to dream big, share their future ideas, respect other people’s views and listen to those who have different ideas to help in achieving success. In an interview by the GNA, some participants expressed gratitude to MTN and SRSF for the intensive empowerment programme geared towards planning their careers at an early stage for fruitful outcomes. John Abban, a student from the University of Cape Coast said “We thank MTN and SRSF for their vision to develop the talents of young people to facilitate employment creation “.

THE Springboard Road Show Foundation, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation and Solidaridad has launched the COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Programme (CoRe), with the aim of supporting over 692,000 young people in the country. The CoRe programme is an e-mentoring, e-coaching and e-counseling intervention aimed at equipping young people in Ghana with relevant skills to enable them to survive and thrive during and after the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The six-month programme, scheduled to run from June to November 2020, has local collaborators including the National Service Scheme, Ghana Psychological Association and Ghana National Association of the Deaf. At the virtual launch of the programme on Springboard, Your Virtual University, the Executive Director of the Springboard Road Show, Mrs Comfort Ocran, said the programme would provide support to beneficiaries in areas such as building resilience, health awareness, and wellness and safety. Others include building relevant workplace skills and job readiness for a post-pandemic era. She said the programme would involve weekly coaching sessions in English and Ghanaian languages to be delivered on radio as well as online. Importance of the programmeMrs Ocran said the programme was meant to deal with the socio-economic impact in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The COVID-19 pandemic is probably the biggest disruption to our way of life in living history,” she stated. She said the negative impact of the pandemic cut across social, cultural, psychological, economic, financial and every other aspect of human life, hence the need to introduce such a programme to support the young ones. “The World Bank has forecasted that 23 million Africans might be pushed into extreme poverty as a result of this pandemic. In Ghana, I know there are many people who have lost their jobs, businesses that have scaled down of even closed down and there have been other fallouts which have led to stress, anxiety and fear among many,” she explained. Programme targetMrs Ocran said the programme would be targeting two main beneficiaries – direct beneficiaries and indirect beneficiaries. “The direct beneficiaries are the over 100,000 national service personnel and individuals who have undergone the Mastercard Foundation sponsored YIEDIE programme in various areas of construction in the past five years. Additionally, we have MASO Programme beneficiaries who were trained in agribusiness, especially in the cocoa sector. “The indirect beneficiaries are the patrons of the Virtual University, the Road Show and other Springboard  interventions over the years,” she noted. Need to work togetherThe Regional Director, West, Central and Northern Africa for MasterCard Foundation, Ms Nathalie Akon Gabala, on her part, said the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity for all African governments and associations to unite and work together towards impactful and scalable solutions to respond to the urgent needs arising. She said more importantly, it was necessary to support the young people who had been severely impacted by the pandemic. “MasterCard Foundation has been working on the continent for over a decade to increase access to education and financial services; and in the wake of COVID-19, it is clear that we need to step up our game on the continent to address the pandemic. “Our aim is to create dignified work for young people and we have an objective of creating 30 million jobs for young women and young Africans over the next 10 years,” she stated. She said the foundation also had an aim of keeping the voices of young people at the centre of any work and programme they implemented. “Young people should be able to navigate the crisis and find the resources that they need. They should be equipped to discover new skills and emerge stronger and better. “We all believe that this pandemic will have a long tail and it’s not over yet. We might even have to face a similar crisis again and we want the young people to be able to navigate it with more confidence when it comes,” she noted. Sustainable solutionsThe acting Country Director of Solidaridad, Mr Bossman Owusu, said the organisation believed in developing sustainable solutions to improve supply chains. “We have had some work under the next generation youth cocoa programme where we are bringing sustainable practice to bear in order to improve the situation for young people and encourage them to enter into agriculture and remain in it. “We are mindful that with the onset of COVID-19, many of our young people who hitherto would receive information on agric production, as well as extension services may be limited now because of the restrictions on movement, and our young people are so much concerned about what happens to what they have put into the production.” “It gets to that point where we need to provide that counselling to help them to be able to cope with the stress and anxiety that has been brought by COVID-19. The CoRe programme, therefore, has the back of all young people who have put in very great efforts to support agriculture,” he explained.