The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yofi Grant, has featured on the Y Leaderboard Series to inspire the youths of Ghana. Among the many interesting things he shared with host Rev. Erskine and listeners of Y107. 9, Mr. Grant touched on his upbringing, education, career, and his motivation.
As a son of a diplomat, one would have thought he will have the luxury of visiting different countries and exploring many schools abroad. However, Mr. Grant’s story was far from that.
Speaking to Rev. Erskine, he revealed that he had to school in a boarding school in Kumasi because of his dad’s principle that “the volatile life of moving from one country to the other was not going to help build a good foundation.”
“So at the age of six or seven, I was in Ghana in a boarding school. The first boarding school I went to was Tech primary in Kumasi so you can imagine how it was coming straight from Geneva, Switzerland, straight to Kumasi. I am not sure today how I will feel about it. But for me it was curiosity. It is two separate cultures. Someone will say I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth but at the age of six I was in a boarding house fetching water, boiling water to have my bath in the morning.”
Mr. Grant commenting on his further education reminisced the impactful education he had at the Achimota Senior High School which he says heightened his confidence, knowledge and exposure because the school put so much effort in integrating students’ lives with “what was imported by the white colonialists.
I learnt how to play cricket, hockey and music in the classroom. We had text books. You came out of the school with a sense of heightened confidence, knowledge and exposure that made you a little bit unique in those days. It was effort to integrate us and make us global and everything else was in the gym and everything else was in the school. So it was our own community.”
Prior to his education at Achimota Senior High School, he mentioned that he attended the Achimota Primary where he made lifetime friends such the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta.
He used the opportunity to share that very often people have the mistaken notion that we only pursue education for knowledge. However, the true essence of education is to acquire “problem-solving skills and critical thinking.”
He says: “You might go to school to learn Archaeology in school but you don’t necessarily have to come out to be an archaeologist. It just teaches you certain things about life. Education is supposed to help you solve problems. It is not only supposed to help you know. It is to help you develop the capabilities of problem-solving and critical thinking.”
He further encouraged the youth to strive to be better than who they are now and aim higher in life. “Don’t be satisfied with where you are. Always believe that there is brighter and better future if you are going forward,” he said.
Programmes Manager of YFM, Eddy Blay, commenting on Mr. Grant’s interview on the Y Leaderboard Series stated: “Mr. Grant has that spark that endears all to him. He never disappoints in his advice to the youth; very practical and concrete. The Y Leaderboard will continue to fulfill its purpose of churning out practical wisdom to the youth through great leaders like Mr. Yofi Grant.”
