Ghanaian entrepreneur and McDan Group Chairman, Dr. Daniel McKorley, has challenged the country to move beyond the familiar rhetoric of youth empowerment and start giving young people something more tangible.
McDan believes that beyond the rhetoric that the youth are one for the future, they must be given real opportunities to lead now.
According to him, young people do not need another promise that they are “the leaders of tomorrow”. They need access, platforms, funding, mentorship and, most importantly, a seat at the table today.
Dr. McKorley made the call as Ghana joined the world to mark International Youth Day, drawing on his experience mentoring and supporting young people through initiatives including McDan Youth Connect, the McDan Entrepreneurship Challenge and scholarship programmes under the McDan Foundation.
He maintains that the nation should stop preparing young people indefinitely for leadership and start trusting them with leadership.
“We don’t need to keep preparing young people for a future where they are expected to lead. We have to give them room to lead now,” he said.
For McDan, the problem is not that young people lack ambition. He is confident that the youth have brilliant ideas and skills. They also have businesses they want to build and problems they want to solve.
What they often lack is the opportunity to turn those ambitions into something tangible. And that, he argues, is where the conversation around youth empowerment must change.
He observes that every year, conversations about youth empowerment generate speeches, conferences, policies and inspirational messages.
But for a young entrepreneur struggling to raise capital, secure a market or find someone willing to take a chance on an idea, inspiration alone does not pay the bills.
A young person with a promising business idea does not necessarily need another motivational speech. They may need a customer, an investor, a mentor, etc to avoid expensive mistakes.
That is the gap McDan is urging society to confront. He believes young people want “opportunities”, meaningful participation and an economy in which their start-ups can actually survive and grow. They also want an ecosystem in which their ideas and work are taken seriously.
For him, youth empowerment cannot forever remain a slogan. It must become something young people can experience now.
