The first edition of the New Era Africa (NERA) Business Ignition Series has been held at the University of Ghana.

The series among other things was to empower the young professionals with the requisite knowledge on taking advantage of the many opportunities to make life better for all.

The theme for the maiden edition is: "Entrepreneurship: A Key To Graduate Unemployment."

The main speaker for the series, Bernard Koku Avle who is also the Director of News at Citi FM advised students to not only focus on developing their analytical parts of the brain but also make a conscious effort to develop the creative parts as well.

Even though he lauded Ghana's education system, he was quick to point out that system has largely become too mechanical and required students to study hard to stay relevant.

He however, posited that in the 21^st Century, the only thing that made one relevant was his value as a human being.

“As an employer, you should do things that will increase your value and as an employee, you should make yourself valuable and useful especially in this era of massive unemployment”, he stated.

He advised participants to invest reasonable time in acquiring soft skills, building strong networks and learning a second language.

“Our social media handler at Citi fm has an Agric background… so after reading your economics (your program of study in this school), do an additional thing that will improve your value. You will need it as an employer and it will be equally beneficial to you as an employee”

The Head of Research at Imani Ghana, Patrick Stephenson who was also a speaker, advised students to always be on the lookout for happenings around them in order to be able to generate wealth to make the world a better place to live in them.

He said the country is plagued with numerous challenges and the ability to provide solutions could be a great source of wealth generation.

“One must be interested in finding simple answers to the many problems we face as a continent. You are paid for the problem you adequately solve. If an individual is earning millions for managing waste, know that you can also earn billions if you addressed a major problem in the society”, he told participants.

He also stressed the need to invest quality time in market survey and feasibility studies.

A third speaker, MD Nanasei, Chief Executive of MD Consult spoke on the essence of passion in successful entrepreneurship.

He admonished participants to be courageous and act on their passion no matter the obstacles they faced. He also intimated that perseverance and patience are also needed in successful entrepreneurship.

He added, “as an entrepreneur, you need human beings; that is the very reason why you have to build strong networks. From your start up to selling your products to your clients, you are required to build strong useful networks”

In his closing remarks, Bernard Owusu the Founding President of NERA said the vision of the group is to "create a pool of active youth who will be interested in providing sound ethical leadership on the continent”.

He also took time to thank Dr Patrick Awuah, Manasseh Azure Awuni and Justice Francis Emile Short for their tremendous help to the organization since its inception. He said plans are far advanced in replicating this vision in Nigeria and Cote D’Ivoire.

He assured participants and the general public to watch out for other educationally exciting programs and projects NERA is about spearheading, most importantly NERA Business Ignition Series II and the NERA Anti-Corruption Campaign slated for August and October respectively.

In attendance were students from the University of Ghana and the University of Professional Studies, young professionals drawn from various industries and the general public.