From zero to hero: A sneak peek into the life of a student-breadwinner

Youth unemployment is a huge challenge for Ghana. Yet some refuse to be victims of the situation. Agblekey Dela Kodjo is a young man who manages to study and earn money to cater for his family at the same time.
According to the 2010 census data, unemployment rate in Ghana stood at 5.3 percent in the year of 2010. Yet 82 percent of those who had work were employed in the informal sector, usually without work contracts, guaranteed regular income or social security. 42.7 percent of unemployed people were aged between 15 and 24. In general, unemployment was higher in the cities than in the rural areas.

Statistically, Dela Kodjo is likely to be unemployed. But Agblekey Dela Kodjo is not unemployed, in fact, he is doing well. He is young, lives in the urban area of Accra, and has not finished his University education. He successfully established his own printing business.

And he doesn’t owe it to his birthright or an easy start, either. Born in the Volta region, he grew up in Togo, staying with his uncle, who had four wives. When Dela Kodjo was eleven years old, the uncle stopped paying his school fees. So he started burning charcoal and weaving baskets to sell them in the markets and cater for himself.

And he did not need money for the school fees alone. Dela Kodjo narrates: “Talking about the attire that you have to wear; talking about your shoes that you have to wear; talking about any other thing that you need for your personal use, you must make sure that you do (something to get it).”

Dealing with the hardships

When he was eighteen years old, Dela Kodjo returned to Ghana, finally settling in Accra with his mother. He wanted to study. But his dreams were nearly shattered, when his father, who had been taking care of his four sisters, passed away. The mother, who is a trader, found it difficult to take care of the family alone.
He had to drop out of College College Secondary School. However, he was undaunted by his failure to complete formal education. He resiliently found himself a new school called Victoria College Secondary School, also in Accra.

Dela Kodjo needed help to start a business, and he found it, step by step. His most valuable business asset was a desktop computer he was given for helping out in a computer lab. After completing his secondary education, he decided to put the computer to use.

He designed an examination paper for schools and borrowed fifty thousand old Ghana Cedis from his mother (5 Ghc) to print a sample, which he took to several private institutions, securing his first job as printing entrepreneur. His secondary school tutor helped by paying for his University admission forms and finding sponsors for the first semester fees at University of Professional Studies in Accra.

Dela Kodjo is ready in his office with the examination papers he designed. 

His motivation

Without support, he could not have started his business. He believes that others helped him, because he proved to be hard-working. He has expanded his business with more computers, a printer and a scanner. He now also prints billboards and banners. Every skill he has acquired on his way, from charcoal-burning to weaving, typing and graphic design, he taught himself.

“The majority of the things that I do are not the things that I’ve really gone to school and studied. I just observe you, and I can emulate you, and do the same thing as you did”, he says.

“The issue is that many people go to the University and when they come out, they say they are unemployed. I’ve told myself that I can’t go to the University and come out from the University and then, when I don’t get somebody to employ me; then I remain unemployed. I told myself that before I come out of the University, I should be rather employing people. That was my motivation”, he concludes.

Today, Dela Kodjo is still a student at the University of Professional Studies; yet he caters for himself and his family. Like 60 percent of the workforce in Ghana, he is self-employed. He believes the country can make headway if more youth follow his example, not to be “in haste to make profit in the short run”, but rather to establish their own companies irrespective of the situation in the country.

“Unemployment is a mentality. One thing that motivated me was that I always ask myself: If everybody wants to be employed by somebody, then who becomes the employer?”

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/DW Multimedia Academy