On August 21st 2021, The Ghanaian-Canadian Associations of Ontario (GCAO) held its 4th Annual Youth Leadership Conference in Toronto via Zoom. Due to COVID, this year’s event was strictly ZOOM. It was attended by youth leaders in the city and moderated and hosted by Maame De-Heer.

The Guest of Honour, The Minister of Youth and Sports Honorable Mustapha Ussif in his address encouraged youth in the diaspora to collaborate and team up with youth in Ghana in joint ventures and entrepreneurship to create wealth and foster cross continental relationships. He answered a wide range of questions around the mental health of youth during this pandemic and the upcoming African youth summit to be held in Ghana. He assured the youth in Toronto that his doors are open to assist them when they come to Ghana to explore business opportunities. He also hinted that the youth from Canada can participate in service schemes to help the country of their heritage. 

In his keynote address, Randell Adjei, Ontario Poet Laureate delivered a powerful speech to motivate youth to develop growth and purpose mindset. Randell took the participants through how to be resilient in pursuit of their goals in life. He pointed out that uncertainty is an integral part of life and youth should project who they want to be and work towards that goal and keep in mind that the path to success requires hard work, resilience, but it is all within the realm of possibilities.

Various workshops were held around mental health, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. Emcee Ebone shared with participants to keep the spirit of entrepreneurship alive despite challenges. Youth should not expect to have instant success and that they should keep working at it, be focused and trust in themselves. He intimated that success will be hard to accomplish if youth do not believe in themselves.

GCAO extends its gratitude to all speakers who captured the presence of youth and dedicated their time to the successful event:

Honourable Mustapha Ussif (Ghanaian Minister of Youth and Sports)
Afya Collective 
Billie-Jane Bolton-Rojo
Ebenezer ‘’Emcee Ebone” Oteng
Eunice Adu Tutu
Grace Arku
Kwame Amoateng
Michelle Bonsu
George Marfo

Master of Ceremony for the event Maame De-Heer encouraged the youth to explore all the opportunities in life to grow and Victor Adarquah in his closing remarks encouraged youth to participate in youth programs and continue to thrive.

A special thank you to all of the GCAO youth leaders who worked tirelessly on the planning committee to put on the successful event.

The conference was adjourned. Next conference will be 2022 and hopefully will be in person conference.