Isabelle Alenus-Crosby
Ghanaians elected the incumbent president John Mahama in a close vote last week.
There were protests, but generally speaking the elections were peaceful, as predicted. President Mahama was sworn in as president in July 2012 after the death of John Atta Mills, and the transition had been smooth.
However, he instantly started campaigning, promising to tackle youth unemployment, exactly as his opponent had been doing for many months already. It was therefore difficult to gauge what kind of a president he would make.
A statement this weekend has given a first insight. President Mahama has officially declared that the path to prosperity would be bumpy if his government failed to see the importance of entrepreneurship. He has vowed to create an environment where business would prosper and promised to rid Ghana of the challenges and obstacles that are currently discouraging future young entrepreneurs.
Half of all students graduating at Ghanaian universities leave the country due to lack of opportunity. Mahama seems determined to change this. It is essential that policymakers craft policies that are suitable for their national context.
It sounds like the Ghanaian president is set on putting together just such a strategy sooner rather than later.
