MTN Ghana has held entrepreneurship training for youth-led and women-led businesses in the digital space and the beauty sector to help improve their operations as well as market their products.

Participants, who included hairdressers, smock weavers and players in the shea butter space, were taken through social media marketing, using smart phones, bookkeeping, customer service as well as sharing knowledge with volunteer entrepreneurs to deliver enterprise business solutions and visit to entrepreneur business sites for exchange of ideas.

The youth entrepreneurship training event formed part of the MTN Yellow Care initiative, an annual event undertaken across the country from June 01 to June 21, every year, where MTN Ghana employees give back to their communities by engaging in various community service activities to make positive impact in communities.

Mr Collins Agyei, Area Sales Manager of the Five Regions of the North, MTN Ghana, during the training in Tamale, expressed MTN Ghana’s commitment as part of the Yellow Care to empower entrepreneurs, particularly in underprivileged communities to stimulate economic growth and create jobs.

“We are doing this by engaging youth in entrepreneurship training on one theme: ‘Women in Action’. Under the youth entrepreneurship, we are looking at youth-led businesses in the digital space and also in the beauty industry, where we are teaching them on customer service training, social media training, and also sharing knowledge with volunteer entrepreneurs to deliver enterprise business solutions.

“So, with the women in action, we are looking at women-led businesses like hairdressing and beauticians’ associations in the country, where the campaign is focusing on indigenous businesses in the shea butter space, smock weaving, beauty and cosmetic industry. We are training women in simple bookkeeping, social media marketing using smart phones and paying familiarisation visit to entrepreneur business sites for ideas exchange.”
Mr Collins Agyei

Empowering the Youth

Mr Collins Agyei explained that the company is doing all these to ensure that it empowers the youth to ensure that they develop their talents and also have tools to help them to market the products that they are churning out. He added that it will in a way enable them to enhance the value that they are bringing onto the businesses that they are doing.

Mr Collins Agyei advised participants to take the lessons seriously and stick to the advise and guidelines given them, saying “We believe that engaging in entrepreneurship is one thing, and making sure your businesses are sustained is another thing”.

Madam Josephine Agyapong, Northern Regional Organiser of Ghana Progressive Hairdressers and Beauticians Association lauded the training and said it had enlightened them on how to take advantage of social media platforms to sell their products such as hair styles.

Madam Agyapong noted that most of them sell their products at the salons and kiosks and they do not even know that there is social media there to help them. “We are happy that today they have come to our aid to know the relevance of social media platforms and how they can impact our businesses,” she said.

Madam Agyapong urged participants to make use of the knowledge gained to sell their products.