Ghanaian Returnee tackles the Challenge of Changing Ghana’s Recruitment Culture When Kwame Ofori-Kuragu returned to Ghana from the UK in 2006, the 35-year old Project Management graduate took with him an idea that had long been in the planning. Frustrated by the recruitment practices he has observed in his home country, Ofori-Kuragau intends to hold a series of job fairs as a springboard to a new kind of recruitment agency designed to offer employers in Ghana access to both choice and quality.
In 1998, inspired by requests from the fellow Ghanaians he met while studying in the UK, Ofori-Kuragu established Leaders for Tomorrow. The organisation aims at mobilising and helping to develop the human, financial and infrastructure resources that are critical to Ghana’s development. Citing the organisation’s mission as “to promote a culture of excellence in the Ghanaian business community and to provide World Class Human Resource and Management Consulting Services”, Ofori-Kuragu now intends to provide a service placing graduates into internship and work placements as well as to source permanent jobs for young Ghanaians, both in Ghana and in the Diaspora.
The organisation’s first venture in this area will be to hold a Job Fair for graduates at the Ghanaian University of Science and Technology, located in Ghana’s second city, Kumasi.
Speaking to ReConnect Africa, Ofori-Kuragau explains, “We are planning three job fairs; in Kumasi, at the University of Ghana and at the University of Cape Coast. We want to create a platform for some of the best employers to interact with some of the best candidates entering the job market in the year to come.” “We need to change the tradition of nepotism when, if you don’t know someone, you aren’t likely to get the job.”
Ofori-Kuragu sees the job fairs as a means for students to find out about job opportunities and halting the flow of educated young people leaving the country. “The lack of information and access to employment impacts to a large extent on the brain drain in Ghana”, he says. “If people don’t get jobs straight after school or university, they are tempted to travel.”
Source: GhanaWeb
